No sooner than the order books open for the new Perodua Alza did UMW Toyota Motor follow suit with the Veloz. The more upmarket seven-seater MPV sibling replaces the Avanza in Malaysia after 18 years and over 178,000 units sold. As with its twin, the Veloz is assembled locally – almost certainly under contract by Perodua – although it will be quite a bit more expensive. Whereas the Alza is expected to top out at around RM 75,000, the Toyota carries estimated pricing of RM 95,000 on-the-road without insurance, inclusive of the sales and service tax (SST).
To justify the higher positioning, the
Veloz will get several unique touches over the Alza. On the outside, this means
a more “premium” design with a chrome strip running all the way under the
clamshell bonnet, LED headlights with sequential indicators, a large hexagonal
grille and T-shaped chrome accents for the LED fog light surrounds. Elsewhere,
the Veloz gets chrome window trim, full-width taillights, triangular cutouts in
the bumpers and the standard fitment of 17-inch two-tone alloy wheels.
Exclusive to Malaysia is a two-tone colour scheme with a black roof for the
Silver Metallic and Blue Metallic paint options, costing an additional RM 1,300.
Single-tone White, Red Metallic and Metallic Bluish Black are also offered.
Inside, the Veloz is differentiated from
the Avanza in other markets (and the Daihatsu Xenia in Indonesia) via
additional silver trim, particularly around the steering wheel, centre air
vents and centre console “rails”. The latter feature integrated ambient
lighting, which can be found on the door cards, too. The dashboard is also
slightly different, with fake stitching. There are also some extra equipment on
the Malaysian version, not least of which is the fitment of a nine-inch
freestanding infotainment touchscreen. This, amazingly, comes with wireless
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, paired with a Qi wireless charger. Like the Alza, the Veloz gets a seven-inch digital
instrument display and an electronic parking brake with auto brake hold.
Safety-wise, the Veloz features the Toyota
Safety Sense suite of driver assists that should be identical to the Alza’s
Perodua Smart Drive Assist (PSDA). This means it will likely include not only
the confirmed autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control but also
lane centring assist, lane keeping assist, blind spot monitoring, front
departure alert, pedal misapplication control and matrix high beam. Six airbags
should also be standard. Under the bonnet lies the usual 2NR-VE 1.5 litre
naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine. While the output figures have yet to
be revealed, they should be similar to the Vios and Yaris, which put out 107 PS
at 6,000 rpm and 140 Nm of torque at 4,200 rpm. Drive is sent to the front
wheels through Daihatsu’s Dual mode CVT (D-CVT) with a seven-speed sequential
mode.