Living with a… Toyota Urban Cruiser (Month 2)

The Toyota Urban Cruiser is a compact electric crossover sharing roots with the Suzuki e Vitara. The Urban Cruiser aims to offer a blend of bold styling, practicality and value. The only trouble is all its competitors followed the same brief, and Toyota is late to the party. Does the Urban Cruiser stack up against the likes of the Skoda Elroq, Kia EV3, Volvo EX30 or Jeep Avenger? I’ve got six months to find out.
Skip to: Month 1 – Mixed feelings Month 2 – A game of chicken

I’m a thirtysomething living in the suburbs. Back in 2017, I bought a Renault Zoe for commuting. However, I soon moved 220 miles away from home to start a new job in Manchester and my little Renault needed to adapt from being a rural runabout into a motorway mile muncher (you can watch a video about the experience here). At the time, long-distance journeys in my car were doable, but time consuming, so the Zoe and I eventually parted ways. I’ve not owned an EV since, but I have driven plenty and there are currently two Renault Megane E-Techs in the family – my dad and husband currently have matching cars. I already have access to a home charger and a dedicated EV energy tariff, so I am excited to return to the electric way of life!

Catherine says: “You need four taps of the screen to turn on the heated seat and it takes an age for the graphics to load – Toyota is clearly going for some sort of record”

How much has it cost you?

£22.37 for public charging during my first trip out in the car, plus two at home overnight top-ups costing 7p per kWh. So far I've spent less than £30 in total!

Where have you been?

I travelled to Crawley to collect the Urban Cruiser and my initial journey was a 240-mile drive home to Manchester. Since then I’ve been keeping it local with various trips around my neighbourhood. The furthest I have travelled is a 24-mile roundtrip into central Manchester.

What have you been carrying?

We used the Toyota to collect our Christmas tree and I’ve been driving around with a car full of pine needles ever since. Foliage aside, I’ve only needed to carry a few bags of shopping.

Delights?

I like the chunky looks, and I appreciate the physical heating and fan speed controls. My mid-range car comes with blind spot monitoring, heated seats and a heated steering wheel, so it’s a warm and safe place to be. The weather has been particularly cold lately and I’ve made good use of the pre-conditioning function in the Toyota app. The Urban Cruiser may not the peppiest electric car, but I am pleased it can easily accelerate up to motorway speeds as I spend a lot of time on the M60 and M6.

Frustrations?

Before you even start driving the Urban Cruiser there are some compromises to accept. The first is the painfully slow and clunky infotainment system. When you turn the car on there’s a safety warning which won’t clear unless you press to close on the touch-screen (ironic). By far the worst bit, though, is you need four taps of the screen just to turn on the heated seat and it takes an age for the graphics to load – Toyota is clearly going for some sort of record. Thank goodness there are some physical heating toggles! The second issue is the tiny boot, which is particularly odd given this is supposed to be a family car. I'm finding the very firm seats somewhat uncomfortable as well. Once you do get underway, the winter range is not particularly good (you can read more about this here) and the ride quality isn’t great either.

This month in a nutshell

I have mixed feeling about the Urban Cruiser. I’m looking forward to living with an EV and not having to visit petrol stations. However, it's not the slickest, funkiest or most practical electric car in its class so it will be interesting to see whether it can win me over.

Catherine says: “Oh my goodness the Urban Cruiser is slow to charge! We’re talking over 40 minutes to add about 100 miles of real-world range.”

How much has it cost you?

About £50 for public charging, some free electricity when I plugged in at my mum and dad’s, plus a full charge on my off-peak energy tariff at home. Not too shabby!

Where have you been?

A few local journeys and a 500-mile roundtrip from Manchester to Suffolk and back to visit my parents.

What have you been carrying?

I played chauffeur for the weekend and took my parents for a day out in Bury St Edmunds. I rarely escape from my favourite shops without buying something, but I couldn’t go too wild this time because two bags and the charging cable are enough to fill most of the Urban Cruiser’s boot.

Delights?

On my first long distance drive in the Urban Cruiser, I discovered the car has no idea how far it will go on a charge. The predicted range is an overestimate, while the average efficiency reading is woefully pessimistic – essentially you are left playing a game of chicken while you figure out what it can really do. By the time I headed back from Suffolk, I was feeling confident the Urban Cruiser is good for about 180 miles on the motorway from a full battery. I set off with 95 per cent charge and got as far as the M6 toll before deciding to stop. Unfortunately, the chargers at the main service station weren’t working, but I made it to a charger on the outskirts of Cannock with 14 per cent left and having travelled 152 miles. Granted this doesn’t sound very far, but the car was claiming to average just 2.6 miles/kWh which would have meant a total range of about 156 miles. Thankfully this was a lie otherwise I might still be somewhere along the M6! I am claiming this small victory.

Frustrations?

Oh my goodness the Urban Cruiser is slow to charge! We’re talking over 40 minutes to add about 100 miles of real-world range. If you are someone who likes to take long breaks in your journey you’ll have time to buy a coffee, wait for it to cool and drink the whole thing before the car is ready to set off again. However, I often do my longer journeys on an evening when I just want to get to my destination as quickly as possible. Given many similar EVs can accept over twice as much power as the Urban Cruiser, waiting around becomes all the more frustrating.

This month in a nutshell

The more time I spend in the Urban Cruiser, the more puzzled I am. I know it’s intended to be used mainly as an urban runabout (the clue is in the name), but for a similar price you could have a Nissan Leaf which has an official range of nearly 400 miles.