Scion will show a new concept in LA … will it preview the brand’s first-ever crossover?

By Ronan Glon October 6, 2015

Scion Los Angeles Auto Show 2015 teaser — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Toyota’s Scion division will travel to next month’s Los Angeles Motor Show to introduce a brand new concept car.

The lone teaser image published by Scion reveals very little about the concept, and the press release that accompanies it is even more enigmatic. At this point, all we know for sure is that the show car will be red.

However, two years ago — when Scion was close to hitting rock bottom — Toyota quietly announced plans to completely overhaul its sub-division’s lineup by adding a handful of new models. Details of the expansion were never made public, but dealers who attended the meeting reported one of the new additions was presented as a compact crossover with a “racy silhouette” that was designed to fight in the red-hot sub-compact crossover segment.

Rumors circulating around the auto industry indicate the concept that will be shown in the City of Angels will give show-goers an accurate preview of the still-nameless crossover. It will allegedly be roughly the same size as the popular Honda HR-V, and it is expected to share more than a handful of components with the production version of the Toyota CH-R concept that was first unveiled in Paris last year and was shown again more recently in Frankfurt.

Regardless of what form the concept ultimately takes, Scion has already confirmed that it will be toned down and added to its lineup as a regular-production model in early 2017.

What’s next?

Dealers were also shown the well-received FT86 Concept during the 2013 meeting. An anonymous attendee pointed out that Toyota wouldn’t bring out a model that hasn’t been given the green light for production, but company executives have repeatedly stressed that the long-awaited topless version of the FR-S coupe has been canceled once and for all for cost and demand reasons.

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Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…

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