The Toyota Corolla Cross is currently on sale in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam. The model is expected to be launched in Malaysia very soon, but don’t call it a South East Asia-only model yet.

Sources in Japan tell us that the Toyota Corolla Cross will be launched in Japan in the third quarter of 2021, possibly imported from Thailand - still the world's only source of Corolla Cross for now (local assembly in Malaysia to start later).

Seeing that hybrid is a must for commercial success in Japan, the Japanese market Corolla Cross will certainly be of the 1.8-litre hybrid variant.

The model will compete directly against the all-new generation Honda HR-V (Vezel), which will go on sale in Japan in April.

Interestingly, a poll by Japanese publication Kuruma News show that Japanese users are more interested in the Corolla Cross (34.4 percent) than the Honda HR-V (28.1 percent), with the Toyota Yaris Cross splitting the two (31.3 percent).

When the all-new Honda HR-V hits the market, the Honda will be facing tough competition because Toyota currently dominates Japan’s SUV market.

The Toyota Yaris Cross is currently Japan’s best-selling SUV, followed by the Toyota Harrier, Toyota Raize (Perodua Ativa to us), Nissan Kicks, and Toyota RAV4.