The 2025 Toyota Crown Signia is coming to the U.S. next year to join the other Crown, which Toyota claims is a sedan rather than a crossover. In Japan, there will be a full roster that consists of four different Crown models, while, so far, only two of these have made it to the U.S. The upcoming Crown is known as the Crown Estate type in its native Japan, but will be called the Signia in the States.
While the Crown sedan that we saw last year is known as just the Crown in America, it’s known as the Crossover type in Japan. There’s also a Sport type and a Sedan type, but it’s not likely that we’ll see either of those in the U.S., unfortunately. We’re stuck with last year’s Crown here in America, but that’s not such a bad thing.
The 2023 Crown is a plain weirdo in the looks department (good) and quite a fun car to drive. This latest Crown Signia is going to share a lot with the 2023 Crown, including its design and engine. The Crown Signia will be powered by a hybrid drivetrain that pairs a 2.5-liter four cylinder engine and two electric motors up front plus another in the rear, making a combined 243 horsepower. The Toyota Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) drivetrain in the Crown Signia will get up to an estimated 36 miles per gallon, which is less than that of the base model Crown “sedan” (up to 43 mpg.)
Where the Crown Signia differs from its cousin in the U.S. is that the SUV will come with AWD standard on all trims. There are only two, these being the XLE and Limited but both of them get the same drivetrain, which has AWD courtesy of the dedicated electric motor in the rear.
The Crown Signia will not be getting the Hybrid MAX drivetrain from the other Crown, which may have been nice given the boost in power (to 340 hp) but it sounds like the Crown Signia has no aspirations to sporty driving. That’s all well and good for an SUV, anyway.And Toyota says that the Crown Signia will be capable of all-electric driving at low speeds for short distances. It would be something if this meant that the Crown Signia is a PHEV, but it’s not. This is a regular hybrid, not a plug-in hybrid like the Prius and RAV4 Prime.
And it all makes sense now. So, this is the reason Toyota insisted on calling the 2023 Crown a sedan and not a crossover. You see, when the Signia’s cousin debuted, Toyota said it was “reimagining the full-size sedan,” despite the Crown clearly being a crossover. Little did we know back then that a Toyota Crown crossover SUV, was, indeed, on the way.
Toyota was going to need a way to differentiate between the sedan and the crossover SUV, so it doggedly resisted admitting the previous Crown was a crossover. That’s fine, I guess. The real crime here is that even the new Crown Signia still doesn’t get a Crown badge in the U.S. So much for the insignia.
