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Toyota announced on March 13th that it would stop production and sales of its C-HR model in Japan in July. According to Japanese media speculation, although a new generation of C-HR is under development, but the future of the model will focus on the European market, the new generation of models into North America, the Japanese market is unlikely.

In December 2022, Toyota released the C-HR Prologue concept car official map. In terms of appearance, C-HR Prologue will retain the overall body style of this generation, the interior of the rectangular middle net is dotted with honeycomb style decoration, the headlamp group presents a narrow "C" shape, while the front enclosure uses a large heat dissipation and ventilation opening, and uses a different color design with the car body, the overall design is more radical. On the whole, the new C-HR is more like an electric car, with similarities and differences with the Toyota bZ4x.

On the side of the body, C-HR Prologue uses a fashionable silver and black color treatment, and adds yellow elements to the back of the roof as embellishment. The overall shape of the new car is very compact, and the front and rear wing plates are slightly wider than the car body, forming a wide body visual feeling. It is worth mentioning that the concept car uses a two-door model, and the mass production version is expected to return to the four-door design to improve its practicality. In addition, the new car also uses a highly sci-fi electronic rearview mirror, but due to the limitations of relevant laws and regulations, traditional rearview mirrors are likely to be used in mass production cars.

The rear part of the car, the rear shape of the slip-back style, together with the double-layer style of penetrating taillights, the overall recognition of the new car is still very high. In addition, the spoiler at the back of the roof and the large-size diffuser decoration around the bottom further enhance the movement of the rear. At present, the new generation of C-HR is still in the state of concept car, which only shows the exterior design, but there is no way to study the interior design. In terms of power, the new generation of C-HR production cars will be equipped with plug-in hybrid systems, and will continue to launch pure electric and fuel versions.

The C-HR is the second model of the TNGA architecture, created for the European market. In 2013, Toyota began developing the C-HR, which will rank lower than the RAV4 in Toyota's SUV product line. Toyota unveiled the C-HR concept car for the first time at the 2014 Paris Motor Show. At the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, Toyota officially launched a mass-production version of the C-HR, which locates a small SUV and competes with Buick Ankora, Honda and other models.

It should be noted that the C-HR is a model specially developed by Toyota for the European market, and it was only after the debut of the concept car that Toyota decided to sell it in the global market. As a car specially built for the European market, the styling design of the C-HR is completely different from other Toyota models, not only radical in appearance, but also high in price, but still in line with the tastes of European consumers. Since then, the C-HR has become Toyota's best-selling model in Europe, where sales reached 120000 in 2017, arguably Toyota's most successful model in recent years.

Thanks to the success of the global market, Toyota introduced C-HR into China for production and sales. In April 2018, Toyota launched two small SUV models in China, FAW Toyota Yize IZOA and Guangzhou Automobile Toyota C-HR, which are sister models based on Toyota TNGA architecture. In June 2018, Guangzhou Auto Toyota C-HR went public with a price of 14.48-179800 yuan, making it the brand's first small SUV. In the same month, FAW Toyota Yize went public with a price of 14.98-175800 yuan.

However, unlike the performance of the global market, C-HR sales in the Chinese market are not good. In the small SUV market, colorful Intelligence and XR-V can be said to be quite strong, while Volkswagen and Toyota can hardly be seen. According to the retail data of the Carriage Association, the cumulative sales of colorful Intelligence in 2022 were 109000 vehicles, while XR-V was 101200 vehicles, while C-HR/ Yize was 21500 vehicles and 18400 vehicles respectively.

Japanese media said that since the listing of Corolla Cross, it has indirectly affected the sales sentiment of C-HR, which had already announced a suspension of sales in North America in December 2022, while Japan also plans to stop production in July, and the market space will be filled by Carola Cross in the future.

Carola Cross also positions the compact SUV, somewhere between C-HR and RAV4. In January 2022, GAC Toyota Fenglanda went public with a price range of 12.58-169800 yuan. In the same month, FAW Toyota Corolla Ruifang listed, the price range of 12.98-169800 yuan. It is understood that Feng Landa / Carola Ruifang are sister models of each other, built on the TNGA-C platform, and the appearance continues the design of the daily version of Carola Cross.

Larger size, lower price, C-HR or will be delisted? Although Fenglanda / Carola Ruifang locates the compact SUV, its price is lower than the C-HR/ Yize, which locates the small SUV. Therefore, the launch of Fenglanda, in addition to expanding and improving the product camp of Guangzhou Automobile Toyota, is more important to replace the market where C-HR is located, focusing on high performance-to-price ratio and large space, including Honda colorful / XR-V, Nissan Xiaoke, Volkswagen Tuyue and other models. Fenglanda sold 94500 vehicles in 2022, while Corolla Ruifang sold 82300 vehicles, far below C-HR/ Yize and not far behind Colorado / CR-V, according to retail data from the Federation of passengers.

At present, a new generation of C-HR is being developed and is expected to be introduced to the market this year, but in view of the fact that the North American and Japanese markets have announced the suspension of production and sale, whether the model will still be introduced into China is unlikely. In contrast, the performance of Fenglanda / Carola Ruifang is significantly better than that of C-HR/ Yize, and the sales volume of the new generation of models will not improve much. And it may affect the market of Feng Landa / Carola Ruifang.

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