Toyota iQ: The Smallest Four-Passenger Car in the World

Toyota iQ: Coming to Japan and Europe
The Toyota iQ, which was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, will go on sale in Japan in October and in Europe a few months later. Lets have a closer look.

Big Space in Small Package
Unlike the Smart Car which can only seat two people, the Toyota iQ has 4 seats, though only 3 of those can accommodate adults. The last one is better used for a small child, a baby seat or a grocery bag. Still, not bad for a car that fits somewhere between the Smart and Yaris in lenght (117 inches).

Update: 57 MPG Toyota iQ Goes on Sale in Europe, No U.S. Release Date Yet

Engine, Drivetrain
Three choices of engines and transmissions are in the plans right now. According to Edmunds:

The 2009 Toyota iQ is really meant to enhance Toyota's presence in Europe, and this market will get the choice of an iQ with either a 1.0-liter inline-3 with a five-speed manual transmission or a turbocharged 1.4-liter inline-4 diesel with a six-speed manual. In mid-2009, a 1.3-liter inline-4 with variable valve timing will become available, and it'll feature either the six-speed manual or a continuously variable transmission (CVT). Meanwhile, Japan will get the 1.0-liter inline-3 matched with a CVT.

[...] we can expect the 1.0-liter to produce around 70 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 69 pound-feet of torque at 3,600 rpm. The 1.4-liter turbodiesel will generate approximately 89 hp.

For those concerned about safety, despite its small size, the Toyota iQ received a 5-star safety rating in Euro NCAP testing.

Considering that the iQ weights 1,962 pounds, these engine choices, despite their modest HP ratings, should be more than enough to give a good driving experience.

How Green is It?
According a Toyota engineer, the 1.0-liter gasoline iQ should record 54.1 mpg on the European driving cycle (99g/km of CO2), while the more powerful 1.4 turbodiesel should get 52.3 mpg (106g/km of CO2).

That's pretty good, though in Europe Toyota will have a lot of competition, especially from small diesels.

How Much will the iQ Cost?
The expected price is $13,000, though we won't be sure until Toyota confirms it. We think Toyota should bring the cover over to North-America. Maybe in limited quantities first if they want to test the waters, but we're pretty sure it would sell in urban areas.

Toyota iQ Microcar

Toyota iQ 1.0 (2009) CAR review

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The new Toyota iQ is a landmark car: the world's soon-to-be-biggest car maker has gone and made the world's smallest four-seater. You see, the iQ packs two rows of pews into a tiny slip of a hatchback. It's not even three metres long. But the Toyota iQ has a twist; like Smart's Fortwo, the last car to rip up the packaging rule book, the iQ wears a distinctly premium price tag.

Think of it like house prices. Although the iQ is tiny, at just 2985mm long, it is plonked slap bang in Mayfair, carrying an estimated £10,000 price tag when UK sales start in January 2009. So it had better be good...

Ok, so the Toyota iQ is pricey, but is it good to drive?

CAR drove some of the first pre-production prototypes on the roads around Toyota's European design centre in Nice, on the south coast of France. This posed a bit of a problem; the Provençal roads might be sun-kissed and blessed with heart-stopping views, but they're also rather steep. And the pair of 1.0-litre iQ models we drove felt out of their depth.

Granted, the cheapest iQ models are designed to flit from Chiswick to Bond Street and back, not blast up the Col de Vence. But we were finger-tapping disappointed by the lack of oomph up the hilly Nicoise roads in the cars powered by the Aygo-sourced 1.0-litre triple.

The 1.3-litre engine option might be better (we didn't have the opportunity to drive it) and there will also be a 1.4-litre diesel option, but the UK won't bring it here. Small diesels just don't sell in Blighty...

And on the motorway?

The 1.0-litre iQ is fine on a motorway run. It'll cruise at 85mph no trouble, but we did feel strangely vulnerable when passing HGVs towering overhead. The iQ is still leagues ahead of the first-gen Smart Fortwo, which bobbed and weaved and felt generally out of sorts at dual carriageway speeds.

Toyota iQ

Toyota first introduced the iQ as a concept city car at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto Show.^[1] Toyota later revealed the production version at the 2008 Geneva Auto Show, with Japanese sales beginning in October 2008 and UK sales in January 2009.^[2]

The name iQ, an initialism of the term intelligence quotient, recalls a competitor, the Smart Fortwo. According to Toyota, the i stands for "individuality" "innovation" and "intelligence". While the Q stands for "quality" and points to the iQ's "cubic" shape and "cues" a new value and lifestyle in the automotive market.

The iQ was initially designed at Toyota Europe Design Development (Toyota ED²), Toyota's design studio in Nice, France.

The design emphasizes low fuel consumption, maneuverability, environmental friendliness, and maximized interior space. Six specific design factors contribute to IQ's minimal overhangs, forward windscreen location, maximized cabin space and overall compactness. These include a newly developed differential and a centre take-off steering gear, a flat fuel tank and rear-angled shock absorbers, a smaller heater/air conditioning unit and asymmetric dashboard, and a slimmer seat design which retains comfort while increasing interior room.

iQ Concept

In Europe, Toyota will offer the iQ with two petrol engines and one diesel. CO2 emissions for the 1L 5spd are 99g/km, making it Road tax free in the UK. It has a 3.9 m (13 ft) turning radius. It has a similar engine to Aygo, a 997cc rather than 998 cc 3 cylinder due to a slightly shorter stroke, 67 bhp (50 kW; 68 PS), 67 lb·ft (91 N·m) at 4800 rpm. 0-100 km/h 14.1 seconds.^[3] The iQ achieves 65.69 Imperial mpg (4.30 l/100km) by European standards.^[4]

Toyota iQ revealed (updated)

Toyota showed off its super compact, C-segment iQ to the world in Geneva today. The car was first shown in concept form at Frankfurt last year, and will be produced in late 2008.

Toyota is touting the iQ as the ultimate refined mode of transportation and at less than 118 inches in length, it’s certainly small enough to be a devoted city runabout.

The iQ is called a 3+1, meaning it is capable of carrying up to three adults along with a child or luggage in comfort.

Toyota is especially proud of the six engineering innovations it utilized to maximized interior space in the iQ in addition to the long wheelbase of nearly 79 inches, which minimizes overhangs but maximizes the space between the wheels. The first includes a newly developed compact differential, alone said to be responsible for over 100mm of added length in the cabin in comparison to the B-segment Toyota Yaris. The rest includes rear-angled shocks and a flat fuel tank under the seats, a smaller heater / air conditioner unit that’s just as efficient, a center take-off steering column, an asymmetrical dashboard as well as slimmer seats claimed to contribute about 1.5 inches in length to the interior. Despite its small size, the iQ received a 5-star safety rating in Euro NCAP testing.

“We came to the conclusion that, in order to ensure a sustainable future, there was a need for a radical change in vehicle packaging. We needed to create a break-through, away

from the traditional belief that small is basic,” said Kazuo Okamoto, Executive Vice President in charge of Research and Development at Toyota.

The pushed-forward dashboard features temperature controls with an LCD display, as well as a 5.8-inch screen for satellite navigation system.

The iQ showed at Geneva sat on 16-inch wheels and powerplant choices will include two gasoline and one diesel engine. Toyota expects to sell 100,000 units of the iQ in its first year of production globally.