Avalon Hybrid

Make
Toyota
Segment
Sedan

After announcing that the full-size Avalon would not continue past the 2022 model year, it seemed like Toyota was giving up on the large sedan market. But rumors quickly emerged that Toyota would replace the Avalon with a model called the Crown, which has never been offered in the United States. Those murmurs have grown into loud chatter as leaked design images of the Crown emerged on the internet. With this new model looking all but guaranteed, we now have the last bit of proof we need to move forward.

The 2023 Toyota Crown has officially been confirmed for a July 15 reveal on the company's Japanese website. This page contains a countdown timer, ticking down the days, hours, minutes, and seconds until the big reveal. Since Japan is 13 hours ahead of eastern standard time, the debut should take place late on July 14 in the US.

Toyota doesn't give much away on the site. There's a brief caption that reads, "Discover Your Crown" with a look at the newly designed Crown logo. This logo is slightly different than the previous generation Crown, which was a traditional sedan body style. With the new Crown, Toyota will attempt to blend the sedan body style with the ride height of an SUV, a trend that has taken off in Europe with a slew of new models. We haven't seen this approach succeed in the US with vehicles like the Volvo S60 Cross Country, but perhaps the Crown can break the mold. Based on the leaked images, it's unclear if the Crown has a conventional sedan trunk, or some sort of liftback.

Rumors suggest the Crown will ride on a TNGA-K platform, meaning it will likely come in front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive configurations. TNGA-K is the same architecture that underpinned the Avalon and is currently used on the Camry, RAV4, Highlander, and several Lexus models. Judging by the bZ4X-inspired front end, we expect the Crown to employ some form of electrification, possibly even an all-electric drivetrain.

CarBuzz is currently scheduled to attend a reveal event in Texas next week for an undisclosed product. Based on this latest information, we can safely assume it's the Crown. After the reveal, you can expect the Crown to arrive at US dealers later this year.