We’ve seen the upcoming 2022 Toyota Avanza in the sportier Veloz form, but here are some leaked pics of the seven-seater MPV in its original form, as the Avanza. Turns out that the face is completely different, along with some trim. While the Veloz’s face is dominated by a large trapezoidal grille, the Avanza’s face has a narrow strip of an upper grille connecting the slim LED headlamps. The Toyota emblem links this to the giant lower grille, which takes up most of the space on this bluff face. Inside that big mouth are horizontal slats – the Veloz’s grille insert is a Y-pattern mesh.

The bumper surrounding the grille is sculptured to form a prominent chin. Square foglamp surrounds with vertical sides frame the face. The Avanza doesn’t get the Veloz’s chrome strip that flows from the headlamps to the windows. At the back, the tail lamps don’t meet at the Toyota emblem, unlike the Veloz. This hints at the tail lamps not being a full LED strip, and the extended bits on the Veloz being merely decorative trim. But if it’s not, then Toyota would have gone a long way to give the sporty version differentiation. The G20 BMW 3 Series-style sideways-T reflector housing is gone, replaced by simple horizontal pieces. No roof rails too.

                                     

No interior picture in this set of leaks, but it shouldn’t have too much difference from the Veloz as the exterior. From what we’ve seen before, the clean sheet dashboard has a big “floating” touchscreen head unit, a new design steering wheel with two spokes of buttons, push start and what looks like ambient lighting strips around the gear lever. Perhaps some of those, and the electronic parking brake, will be reserved for the higher variants. The layout and sharp angles remind me of the Ativa/Rocky/Raize dashboard, but slightly less funky, flatter and rendered in two-tone.

The passenger section has a huge roof-mounted screen, a single pop-out cupholder, USB charging ports and sliding seats. Interestingly, the front seat backs have organising slots above the usual lower pocket. There’s one wide slot (probably good enough for a tablet) and a smaller one that looks perfect for a phone. No official details yet, but we’re expecting a radical change under the skin too, specifically a switch to the Daihatsu New Global Architecture (DNGA) that also underpins the Ativa/Rocky/Raize. If so, the Avanza will be moving from ladder frame to monocoque construction and rear-wheel drive to FWD.