Back in March, we reported that that Toyota will be introducing the Toyota Corolla Cross, a new model that is positioned below the Toyota C-HR.

A teaser from Toyota Thailand has indicated that the new crossover will make its global debut on 9-July, which is next Thursday.

To recap, although the Toyota Corolla Cross uses the Corolla name, it is not a jacked-up version of the Corolla hatchback (sold in the USA, Europe, Australia, and Japan).

Yes, it will be built on the TNGA-C platform (like the Corolla hatchback and C-HR), it will have a torsion beam rear suspension instead of the Corolla’s double wishbone rear suspension.

Switching to a torsion beam suspension may sound counterintuitive (the Corolla Altis went from a torsion beam to a double wishbone setup), but adopting the torsion beam setup allows the Corolla Cross to be priced cheaper than the C-HR, and also save space.

In Thailand, the Corolla Cross is expected to mirror the Toyota C-HR’s powertrains, which includes a 1.8-litre 2ZR-FBE four-cylinder petrol engine (140 PS, 171 Nm) and a 1.8-litre 2ZR-FXE petrol-electric hybrid (122 PS combined system output).

When the model arrives is launched, it will compete against other popular segment rivals like the Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3, and Nissan Kicks.

What about Malaysia?

For Malaysia, there is a good chance that the Corolla Cross will be locally-assembled (CKD) at UMW Toyota Motor’s new plant in Bukit Raja. At the moment, the new plant only makes the Toyota Vios and Toyota Yaris.

Surely Toyota didn’t invest in a new 50,000 units-per-year capacity plant just to make only two B-segment models, right?