Photo: Toyota
The Rising Sun company has introduced them via an event in Toyota City, Japan, and they're "delivering the joy of comfortable mobility" to everyone, no matter how diverse their lifestyle is. Well, the notion of 'everyone' is relative, actually, as we don't bet on seeing the Alphard or Vellfire in US showrooms anytime soon.
In America, Toyota is still a partisan of passenger cars if you look at its roster that's brimming with four Corolla options, two Prius choices, a couple of Camry flavors, the Crown flagship, the Mirai FCEV, or the sporty GR86 and GR Supra. But it also sells just one minivan – the 2023 Sienna starting from an MSRP of almost $37k. That should easily tell us something about the state of the MPV market, right? Like the fact that it's on life support, at least as far as the North American region is concerned.
At home in Japan, though, Toyota is more supportive of the endangered minivan species and just gave it a couple of new impulses by way of the next-generation Alphard and Vellfire minivan siblings, which reached just reached their fourth iteration. Ehm, that would be the Alphard – named after the brightest star in the constellation Hydra, as the twin model Vellfire only appeared since 2008 when the second-generation Alphard was introduced.
And suppose you were wondering about the differences between them. In that case, the Vellfire is a sportier alternative to the Alphard – just like the more luxurious Lexus LM reaches several Asian markets outside Japan. Now that we have cleared the confusion, Toyota aims to make a statement with the design keywords "forceful x impact luxury." Thus, look beyond the humongous radiator grille that would make even the latest BMW thoroughly envious, and you might spot a couple of quirky minivans.
They naturally follow in the footsteps of the recently launched (2023 Shanghai Auto Show) second-generation Lexus LM, which has its unique version of the huge spindle grille and fresh TNGA-K underpinnings plus all-hybrid powertrains of the LM 350h and LM 500h variety. By the way, the new LM has a tremendously expanded availability, and it will soon be ready to reach previously inaccessible places like Europe or Japan. Meanwhile, the Toyota Alphard and Vellfire siblings have already started sales of their respective JDM versions with gasoline or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) powertrains. In case anyone needs more good, sustainable news, Toyota has promised plug-in hybrid options will become available soon.
The gasoline version dropped the previous generation's 3.5-liter V6 engine in favor of the modern 2.4-liter T24A-FTS turbo mill with 275 horsepower – offered with both 2WD and 4WD versions on the Vellfire. The hybrid (A25A-FXS 2.5-liter) variant is the same for both models, complete with a combined output of 250 hp, and the base Alphard models depend on a 2.5-liter (2AR-FE) hooked to Super CVT-I instead of Direct Shift-8AT like on the Vellfire and rocking a rating of 180 horsepower. Prices kick off at JPY 5,400,000 (around $38k) for the Alphard Z and can go as high as JPY 8,920,000 ($62,791) for the Vellfire Executive Lounge hybrid with E-Four traction.
At home in Japan, though, Toyota is more supportive of the endangered minivan species and just gave it a couple of new impulses by way of the next-generation Alphard and Vellfire minivan siblings, which reached just reached their fourth iteration. Ehm, that would be the Alphard – named after the brightest star in the constellation Hydra, as the twin model Vellfire only appeared since 2008 when the second-generation Alphard was introduced.
And suppose you were wondering about the differences between them. In that case, the Vellfire is a sportier alternative to the Alphard – just like the more luxurious Lexus LM reaches several Asian markets outside Japan. Now that we have cleared the confusion, Toyota aims to make a statement with the design keywords "forceful x impact luxury." Thus, look beyond the humongous radiator grille that would make even the latest BMW thoroughly envious, and you might spot a couple of quirky minivans.
They naturally follow in the footsteps of the recently launched (2023 Shanghai Auto Show) second-generation Lexus LM, which has its unique version of the huge spindle grille and fresh TNGA-K underpinnings plus all-hybrid powertrains of the LM 350h and LM 500h variety. By the way, the new LM has a tremendously expanded availability, and it will soon be ready to reach previously inaccessible places like Europe or Japan. Meanwhile, the Toyota Alphard and Vellfire siblings have already started sales of their respective JDM versions with gasoline or hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) powertrains. In case anyone needs more good, sustainable news, Toyota has promised plug-in hybrid options will become available soon.
The gasoline version dropped the previous generation's 3.5-liter V6 engine in favor of the modern 2.4-liter T24A-FTS turbo mill with 275 horsepower – offered with both 2WD and 4WD versions on the Vellfire. The hybrid (A25A-FXS 2.5-liter) variant is the same for both models, complete with a combined output of 250 hp, and the base Alphard models depend on a 2.5-liter (2AR-FE) hooked to Super CVT-I instead of Direct Shift-8AT like on the Vellfire and rocking a rating of 180 horsepower. Prices kick off at JPY 5,400,000 (around $38k) for the Alphard Z and can go as high as JPY 8,920,000 ($62,791) for the Vellfire Executive Lounge hybrid with E-Four traction.
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