Toyota C-HR+

EV-agnostic Japanese giant’s bZ4X electric SUV spawns a smaller but confusingly named offspring

While it’s hard to keep up with Kia’s relentless launch schedule – there appears to be a new, differently numbered EV every week – Toyota takes things more steadily.

Its approach has the slow but relentless momentum that comes with being the world’s largest car maker. And with momentum also comes inertia – and that complicates changes of direction, in particular the one needed to do electric cars well. Toyota loves its hybrids but has been very slow to come up with the EVs that it does need in Europe. The new Toyota C-HR+ is only its second mainstream EV, after the bZ4X. It will soon also launch the Urban Cruiser, of course, but that’s a Suzuki underneath.

Didn’t it already have a C-HR? Well, yes – the regular C-HR is its Volkswagen T-Roc- and Nissan Qashqai-sized sensible-but-supposedly-stylish hybrid SUV, but the ‘+’ in the new name indicates that it’s the completely unrelated electric equivalent of roughly the same size. Obvs. At least with this week’s new Kia, the name tells you what powers it and where it sits in the range…

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DESIGN & STYLING

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Instead of being an electric version of the existing C-HR, the C-HR+ is actually a shortened bZ4X – not unlike the way that the Skoda Elroq is a shortened Enyaq. That means it gets all the same improvements as the recently updated version of its sister model.

Put it next to a bZ4X and there are more visual differences than there are between the Skoda twins – particularly the C-HR+’s kinked shoulder line and round wheel-arch trims. There’s a lot going on with the design – busy surfacing, a ‘coupé’ roofline and a ducktail spoiler – yet all together it manages to look not particularly distinctive.

‘C-HR’ isn’t just a random set of letters and punctuation. When the original came out, Toyota said it stood for Coupé High Rider. File with Midship Runabout…
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

Peculiarly, despite being the cheaper, smaller model, the C-HR+ has a bigger battery option than the recently updated bZ4X. The entry-level battery is the same: a 57.7kWh (total capacity) pack that comes with a single 165bhp motor and which – one imagines – will have limited popularity in the UK.

The long-range option is where it’s at: it has a 77kWh pack (rather than bZ4X’s 73kWh), which, in combination with the single 221bhp front motor, gives it 378 miles of range, or 350 miles with the 20in wheels that most people will probably pick. That’s more than a Skoda Elroq 85, despite having a smaller battery. We’re still waiting for a final WLTP efficiency figure, but based on that range it sounds fairly impressive. Go for the dual-motor model, with 338bhp, and the range does drop a bit.

The C-HR+ has the same 150kW DC charge speed, which looks a bit weedy in the bZ4X when compared with the Hyundai Ioniq 5, but it is perfectly acceptable here in this lower segment.

INTERIOR

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Inside, it’s all very bZ4X. If you’re being charitable, you’d say it feels robust. The dashboard and door cards are composed of Toyota’s trademark blend of 11 textures of grey rubber, which doesn’t feel cheap but is far from upmarket. The centre console ticks all the practicality boxes, including the lack of fingerprint-prone surfaces, but goodness it’s dull.

Not to sound ungrateful, but the area in which Toyota has tried to be a bit zany hasn’t really worked. Like on the bZ4X, it does the Peugeot-style thing of having a high-set instrument cluster with a small steering wheel. While I didn’t have any trouble seeing the driver display, it’s still a compromised set-up that doesn’t address any unsolved problems.

Toyota's press-and-turn drive selector is unusual, but easier to use without looking, and more satisfying than the more common toggle switches
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

To grab the steering wheel and still rest your elbows on the armrests means doing a sort of chicken dance. Otherwise, the driving position is good: it’s fairly high up, and Toyota’s seats are typically superb. The ultra-soft microsuede upholstery is pleasant, but again, did it need to be this grey?

The big infotainment touchscreen is crisp, responsive and generally logical, if a little basic – which suits a Toyota pretty well. Space in the back is slightly down on the Elroq, with a fairly high floor. Its 452 litres of boot volume is pretty good, though, if still down on that pesky Skoda.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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You can trust modern Toyotas to feel pretty well put-together to drive, and this one is no different. Accelerator and brake pedals are nicely progressive, and paddles let you vary the amount of lift-off regeneration, stopping short of a proper one-pedal drive mode. The dual-motor version I drove was pretty quick. It’s just not that kind of car, though, and you would be fine with the single-motor model.

RIDE & HANDLING

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Even so, Toyota claims the C-HR+ is “designed for car lovers, with a rewarding, fun-to-drive character”, which is a significant overstatement. It handles securely and intuitively, but there’s very little feedback coming through the steering, and responses from the front end aren’t particularly immediate.

Meanwhile, when you put your foot down out of a tight corner, there’s never any doubt that it’s the front axle that’s receiving the most power. It rides with the same tightly controlled, rubbery gait as some other Toyotas. It’s not soft or plush, but it has quite a reassuring sense of unbreakability about it. It’s actually quite a nice compromise.

The C-HR+ rides on Bridgestone Alenza tyres, which rarely make for the most incisively handling cars
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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Toyota’s big selling point has long been the ownership experience, and that ought to be the case for the C-HR+ as well. Reliability tends to be strong, there’s the potential of a 10-year warranty and the C-HR+ lets you easily check the battery health: there’s a screen in the driver display that tells you what percentage of the original battery capacity remains.

Real-world efficiency ought to be another strong point, but we would need more time in a single-motor car to come to a definitive verdict. On our initial drive of the dual-motor version, efficiency was fairly disappointing at 3.0mpkWh. Prices, meanwhile, will be announced closer to customer deliveries at the start of next year, but expect mid- to high-£30,000s for single-motor cars, a bit more for the dual-motor – in line with rivals.

As usual, Toyota's 10-year warranty comes with the caveat that you need to visit a dealership every year, which might seem a little excessive with an EV
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

VERDICT

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It feels like Toyota’s heart still isn’t fully in EVs, and the C-HR+ seems unambitious. It’s competitive enough and pleasant to drive, and it’s the sort of car that’s likely to give several years of uneventful service with few annoyances, in a way that a Jeep Compass might not. It does risk getting lost in a sea of similar rivals, though.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S.