Toyota's Aygo X Prologue concept hints at a shift to SUV styling for the successor to the automaker's Aygo minicar.
In creating the concept, Toyota wanted to re-imagine the minicar segment, said Lance Scott, the design director of Toyota's ED2 studio.
Toyota says the current Aygo has a stand-out design in the segment, therefore, the automaker "wanted to make that distinctive character more daring, more surprising,” Scott told Automotive News Europe in a telephone interview. The idea was to create a shape that "promises a lot of fun," Scott added.
The Aygo X Prologue is 3700 mm (146 inches) long, just 5 mm longer than the Aygo hatchback, but it has greater ground clearance and SUV looks. It was designed at the ED2 studio in Sophia-Antipolis, near Nice, France.
The letter X in the name suggests that Toyota will switch to the Cross name for the Aygo's successor. The automaker also uses the Cross designation for the Yaris Cross small SUV, which will go on sale this year.
Like the Yaris small hatchback and Yaris Cross, the Aygo X is based on the GA-B version of the Toyota New Global Architecture.