The next version of the Toyota Kluger SUV – sold overseas as Highlander – will reportedly be available with long-range hybrid technology in China.
The next version of the Toyota Kluger seven-seat family SUV could gain plug-in hybrid power in Australia, potentially with range-extender technology for an electric-car-like driving experience.
Car News China reports GAC Toyota – one of Toyota's two joint-venture companies in China – confirmed it will launch range-extender electric vehicle (REEV) and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions of the next Highlander, the overseas name for the Kluger.
The REEV system – using a petrol engine to generate electricity for the vehicle's battery, with electric motors solely powering the wheels – will also be applied to the next version of the Sienna people-mover in China, a car not sold in Australia.
Toyota currently sells two versions of the seven-seat SUV in China, the Highlander built by GAC Toyota and the Crown Kluger from FAW Toyota, offered with 2.5-litre petrol-electric hybrid or 2.0-litre turbo-petrol power.
It is currently unclear if the global Highlander will receive the same range-extender hybrid option as the Chinese model, with GAC Toyota aiming to introduce more China-specific technologies into its vehicles.
The Toyota Kluger is currently built in the United States for Australia, and exclusively offered with hybrid power since mid-2024 when order books closed for 2.4-litre turbo four-cylinder variants, 18 months after it replaced the long-running 3.5-litre V6.
Toyota introduced a larger sibling to the Kluger, the Grand Highlander, in the US in 2023, but it is not built in right-hand drive for Australia.
In April 2024, US website CarBuzz reported the Kluger would go electric-only for its next generation, while the larger Grand Highlander would retain its existing 2.4-litre turbo-petrol, 2.5-litre hybrid, and 2.4-litre turbo 'Hybrid Max' options.
However, in an interview with Automotive News in January 2025, Russ Humberston Jr., the chair of the Toyota national dealer advisory council in the US, alluded to the next-generation Highlander gaining plug-in hybrid technology.
"A year from now, we’re going to have a new bZ, and that’s all we’re going to have that’s pure electric."
Toyota has since confirmed the C-HR+ electric SUV will be sold in the US, while the bZ4X has been renamed to bZ for that market with a facelift and the addition of the wagon-like bZ Woodland model, badged bZ4X Touring for Australia and Europe.
"We’ll have the plug-ins that we have now, and the new Highlander, but that’s it," Humberston Jr. added.
A seven-seat Toyota electric SUV is due to be built at its factory in Kentucky, USA, from 2026, but it is unknown if it will share anything in common with the next Kluger, which could also appear in 2026.
Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
