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.