Toyota Urban Cruiser Review & Prices

The Toyota Urban Cruiser is an all-electric small SUV that’s designed - you guessed it - with urban driving in mind. It looks sharp both inside and out, but it’s uncomfortable and doesn’t feel as premium as Toyota’s other cars.

Here’s the thing, the Urban Cruiser is quite a lot like a Scooby Doo villain, because if you peel back its mask you’ll soon realise that it’s not a Toyota at all. In fact, it’s pretty much identical to the Suzuki E-Vitara under the skin.

There are plenty of highly capable alternatives to choose from, such as the excellent (and both Carwow Car of the Year commended) Kia EV3 and Skoda Elroq, as well as the super-comfortable Volvo EX30 and stylish Peugeot E-2008. The hybrid Toyota Yaris Cross and C-HR are definitely worth a look, too.

Though the Urban Cruiser looks a lot more rugged than any of its alternatives, and really rather good as a result. The C-shaped headlights are part of the Toyota-typical sporty front end, while the swollen arches, shallow side windows and chunky body cladding give the little Toyota a lot of road presence for such a small SUV.

Toyota Urban Cruiser: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 213 - 264 miles
Efficiency: 4.1 - 4.2mi/kWh
Battery size: 49kW, 61kW
Max charge speed: 67kW
Charge time AC: 6hrs (15-100%, 11kW) 9hrs 30mins (15-100%, 7kW)
Charge time DC: 45min (10-80%, 67kW)
Charge port location: Front, left side
Power outputs: 144hp, 174hp

While the front end is Toyota-specific, the interior is almost a carbon copy of its Suzuki counterpart. It looks funky, with a two-tier dashboard, the leading edge of which is trimmed with a pleasant texture and houses the prominent air vents.

Unlike some of its irritating touchscreen-mad alternatives, the Urban Cruiser has a row of physical climate controls on the dashboard, but it’s a shame the infotainment system isn’t the same as in other Toyota models.

You’ll find it’s painfully slow and unintuitive to use, while the steering wheel horn, dash top and parts of the door cards are made from shiny, cheap plastics - not the quality we’ve come to expect from the Japanese brand.

The seats are comfortable, but the driving position itself is poor, with not enough adjustability in the seats. Back-seat passengers aren’t lacking for headroom and legroom is decent with the bench slid all the way back. Storage is adequate if unimpressive, while the boot is frankly tiny; 238 litres with the seats back, or 308 litres with them all the way forwards. The Skoda Elroq has one of the biggest boots in this class, with lots of clever storage features, too.

Entry-level Icon models are fitted with a 49kWh battery for a claimed 214 miles of range, while the Design and Excel versions have a larger 61kWh battery - to travel up to 265 miles on a charge.

From behind the wheel, forward visibility is excellent and the Urban Cruiser tackles big speed bumps and most potholes with ease. You get noticeably shaken about on rough sections of tarmac, though. Still, it’s easy to place on the road and a doddle to park in tight spaces, even if the rear-view camera image is notably pixelated.

The Urban Cruiser is out of place on the motorway, because while the Design model we tested had strong acceleration up to the national speed limit, the suspension doesn’t settle down at a cruise and there’s plenty of wind noise in the cabin. Its soft suspension doesn’t help on a country lane, where the small Toyota wallows over bumps and dips, and the steering doesn’t give you confidence on a winding road.

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The Urban Cruiser kicks off at just under £30,000, which appears good value compared to the Kia EV3 and Skoda Elroq, but it offers a good chunk less range than either of its alternatives do in entry-level trims. It’s not as comfortable or spacious as the Korean and Czech EVs, either.

Icon models come on 18-inch wheels with keyless entry-and-go and rear parking sensors, as well as the sliding rear seats and a 10.3-inch driver display. The mid-range Design gets the larger battery as well as heated front seats and steering wheel, while the top-dog Excel gets swanky 19-inch alloys, 360-degree cameras, electric driver’s seat, wireless phone charger and a JBL sound system.

It’s a doddle to manoeuvre around town, but the Toyota Urban Cruiser is uncomfortable and no fun to drive

In town

The high seating position, upright windscreen and short bonnet/upright front end combo make the Urban Cruiser a piece of cake to potter around town in. The extremities are easy to judge, the 10.4-metre turning circle is tight (a Renault 5’s is 10.3 metres) and the brakes have a sharp initial bite, which gives you confidence to squeeze into small gaps.

Design and Excel models have a more powerful motor than the Icon, and the Excel we tested pulled away from the lights strongly and smoothly. There’s no one-pedal driving mode, but you can change the regenerative braking strength. A baffling quirk: while a button next to the gear selector turns regen braking on and off, you need to navigate through the car’s menus to adjust the strength.

Unfortunately the Urban Cruiser’s suspension is a tale of two halves, because while it’s so soft that big speed bumps and road dips are absorbed well, there’s a noticeable jitteriness everywhere else. It really thumps through potholes, and the small Toyota never quite feels at home on a rough road, which is draining over a long commute.

On the motorway

The Urban Cruiser lives up to its name here, because it’s unrefined at higher speeds, out of town. Road noise is contained adequately, but there’s a lot of wind noise from the door mirrors and around the roof and windscreen.

Driving in the rain is especially noisy, and it feels like you can hear each individual droplet echoing through the cabin. One car in front of us threw a little stone up as we were turning off the M23, and the noise it made clipping the roof sounded like shooting a target with a pellet gun at the funfair.

Getting up to speed is easy on the higher trim cars, but acceleration is stronger in the city than it is around the national speed limit, so overtakes need a little planning in advance.

On a twisty road

Twisty roads are best tackled at a steady place, because the Urban Cruiser is far from sporty or fun to drive. Rough, bumpy country lanes test the suspension to its limits, and you wallow about as a result, while the steering doesn’t self centre near the middle which means you need to manually correct a lot of the time.

You’ll want to turn the lane-keep assist off if you’re attacking corners, because it’s rather aggressive when pulling you away from white lines on the road.

There’s plenty of grip and though the brakes are spongy past the initial bit they feel adequately powerful, but the small Toyota is tiring to drive quickly on a winding road. You’ll have more fun in a Ford Puma Gen-E or Renault Captur.

You get some useful storage in the Urban Cruiser’s cabin, but boot and back seat space are at odds with one another

The Urban Cruiser’s cabin isn’t exactly huge, but there’s more than enough space for most drivers up front. There’s plenty of headroom, even if the driver’s seat doesn’t adjust low enough for our liking, and well-placed armrests on the door and centre console.

You’re forced to sit at a strange angle, that being said, because the driving position is poor. The steering wheel is too far to the left and the pedals too far to the right, which takes a while to get used to.

There’s a generous storage cubby under the centre console with USB-A, 12-volt and USB-C charging, while a deep container below the armrest, phone pad (with wireless charging on the Excel) and a pair of small cupholders sit around the gear selector. The door bins have (just) enough space for large bottles, but not much else beyond that.

Space in the back seats

While the back of the Urban Cruiser is rather tight, you get a party piece to show off to your mates: a 40:20:40 folding and sliding rear bench. With the seats all the way back there’s plenty of legroom for adults of most sizes, but headroom is a little tight if you’re above six-foot tall.

You won’t fit three adults back there comfortably, no matter where the bench is, and if it’s slid all the way forwards then leg space becomes tight.

There's a handy little storage slot on the back of the centre console and another pair of USB-A and -C charging ports, but strangely you only get one pocket on the front seat backs and the door bins are positively tiny.

Boot space

There’s no sugar-coating this, even with the trick sliding rear seats the Urban Cruiser’s boot is unacceptably small for a car of this size. At just 238 litres in volume with the seats slid back, you’ll fit almost as much luggage into the back of a Mini Cooper Electric.

Slide the rear bench forwards and that space grows to 308 litres, but even then that’s over 130 litres down on the Peugeot E-2008, 150 litres down on the Kia EV3 and a whopping 170 litres shy of the Skoda Elroq’s boot capacity.

That’s not taking into account the enormous charging cable bag either, which you might be able to ditch if you can be bothered to contort the cables into the tiny under-floor storage space, but that’s a faff to do every time you charge the car. At least there’s a deep cubby on the left side which is handy for small, loose items.

The Urban Cruiser has a very distinct look to the rest of Toyota’s range inside, with a much chunkier - and much more fun - interior design. The dashboard has a flat top layer which looks a bit cheap and shiny, but the leading edge which faces the front seats has a funky texture to it, with big air vents and a row of piano-key-style toggles for the climate control, similar to the Peugeot E-2008.

Okay the French car is still more stylish inside, but there’s a certain charm to the Urban Cruiser’s interior, and all of the controls are logically placed while feeling high-quality to the touch. It’s a shame that the door card tops and horn cover feel cheap, because the rest of the cabin is largely well put together - if not granite-esque like Toyota’s other models.

Look up, however, and you’re presented with a cheap-feeling headliner material, almost as if Toyota has forgotten to trim the roof properly.

The infotainment and driver display also look cheap compared to the rest of Toyota’s range, and you can tell it’s heavily Suzuki-derived. It takes ages for the 10.3-inch central display to respond to your touch and the menus aren’t intuitive to navigate at all.

You’re best-off using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, but you'll have to back out of phone mirroring to adjust the heated seats and steering wheel, for example, or to disengage the driver assistance systems. There’s an odd ‘look around’ camera sweep when you start the car up, which you can’t skip, so you have to wait before you can use the infotainment system.

Fortunately material quality in the back feels the same as it does up front, which is a welcome change given how many small cars feel much cheaper as a rear passenger.

The entry-level Urban Cruiser Icon is the only version which comes with the small, 49kWh battery and 142hp motor. It’s good for a 0-62mph time of 9.6 seconds and a claimed range of up to 214 miles.

Design and Excel versions come with a larger 61kWh battery and more powerful 172hp motor, while the 0-62mph time drops to 8.7 seconds and range climbs to 265 miles. You’ll see around 80% of that in the real world, so long as you’re driving sensibly, which puts it on par with a similarly-priced Skoda Elroq or Kia EV3. For around £1,500 more you can get a long-range EV3, that being said, which can go 375 miles to a charge.

Charging times for the Urban Cruiser are really poor compared to the alternatives, because it can only charge at up to 67kW on a DC fast charger, while the Kia EV3 can charge at double that rate. You’ll need 45 minutes spare to charge the Toyota from 10-80%, which isn’t practical for road trips.

You’ll pay the lowest road tax rate on the Urban Cruiser as it’s an EV, and even with every option pack, fancy wheels and paint selected it stays under the luxury car tax threshold, saving you money between years two and six. Company car drivers will only have to pay the lowest Benefit-in-Kind rate, too.

The Urban Cruiser scored four-out-of-five stars in its 2025 Euro NCAP crash test, which isn’t inherently bad, but it’s a disappointing result given most of its alternatives have full-fat, five-star ratings. The adult occupant, vulnerable road users and safety assist scores are only in the 70s, though the 85% child safety score is good news for families and on par with other small SUVs.

You get a pair of ISOFIX anchor points in the back, as well as auto-emergency braking, speed limit assistance, active lane assist and a driver monitoring system as standard.

Toyota came 14th out of 31 brands in the 2025 Driver Power survey for owner satisfaction, which is a surprising result given the brand and its legacy of well-made cars.

The Urban Cruiser is too new to have any issues come to light, but you can buy one with peace of mind knowing that Toyota offers the best warranty in the game (alongside Suzuki) at 10 years and 100,000-miles of coverage, with regular Toyota-approved servicing.