The Toyota Previa Minivan May Return As A Plug-In

The Previa was a 1990s family car of the minivan type that was more famous for its distinctive egg-shaped appearance than its appeal to those seeking a minivan.

Toyota is reportedly developing a reborn Previa seven-seater people carrier which is expected to arrive in 2026.
This model will be offered with a plug-in hybrid or pure electric powertrain and shares mechanical elements with the Sienna.
It could become the first battery-electric vehicle based on Toyota's TNGA-K platform.

The Toyota Previa minivan, released between 1990 and 1997, may not have been a top seller, but its unique, rounded shape truly set it apart from other vehicles. Toyota is planning a reboot of its lineup and one report suggests that a brand-new, plug-in Previa is on the horizon with a launch slated for the next couple of years.

The Sienna, which is Toyota’s sole minivan currently available in the United States.

The Sienna is also the new Previa's more conventional equivalent, and it will most likely coexist with the new Previa, serving as a non-plugin hybrid option with a more classical design.

An unidentified source at Forbes reveals that Toyota has opted for the TNGA-K platform, enabling the compatibility of both plug-in hybrid and pure electric powertrains. If the new Previa had been built on the e-TNGA architecture, it would have been constrained to offering only a fully electric variant, while plugging into a market where plug-in hybrids are increasingly in demand.

The vehicle has a 13.6-kilowatt-hour battery pack, providing a claimed WLTP range of around 33 miles. The larger and more weighty Previa plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) is expected to have a shorter electric range, and Toyota may accordingly provide a larger battery pack to improve its electric driving capabilities.

Seems a much better fit for a seven-seater minivan. It makes the RAV4 PHEV have an EPA range of 42 miles, so it should take the more aerodynamic Previa even further.

Toyota does not currently manufacture any electric vehicles (EVs) on the TNGA-K platform. For the all-electric variant of the Previa, Toyota could potentially adapt the powertrain from the bZ4X, which is available with a 201 horsepower single-motor front-wheel-drive configuration in its base form and a more powerful all-wheel-drive option with 215 horsepower and increased torque achieved by adding a second motor in the rear.

The bZ4X is equipped with a 71.4 kWh battery, which has a practical capacity of approximately 64 kWh. This allows it to have a range of 252 miles on a single charge when powered by a single motor. The Previa, being larger and heavier, would likely struggle to achieve more than 200 miles on a single charge, so it's likely that the battery pack in the BEV variant will be larger than the one in the bZ4X.

Global has seen sales drop by almost 70% over the first eleven months of last year compared to the same period in 2023.

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Toyota's electric vehicles have not been among the most impressive offerings on the market, but a practical battery-powered people carrier could change that, particularly if it boasts a distinctive and eye-catching design. It is likely to be designed with a bold, retro-futuristic aesthetic reminiscent of the original 1990s model, which had a one-of-a-kind rounded design that sparked strong reactions when it was first introduced. However, today that unusual design might be transformed into something cool and ahead of its time, similar to how the classic LeCar has evolved into the sleek Renault 5 electric hatch.

It continued to be marketed in other markets. A second generation was introduced in 2000, which lost some of the original's roundness and its mid-engined design, but it remained a boldly styled minivan. The third-generation model arrived in 2006 and it remained in production until the year 2019.

All of them shared a very sloping nose and sleek profile, the distinguishing feature between the second and third generations being their higher rear section. Toyota is likely to integrate the desire for aerodynamic effectiveness into the new model's design, given the current trend of returning to streamlined aesthetics.

We attempted to envision a potential design for a 2026 Toyota Previa by utilizing the capabilities of Midjourney AI, and you can view the generated image at the start of this article.