The Venza Could Come Back With a Coupe Roofline

A June 2025 report said the Venza could return to America as a sleeker, coupe-like SUV based on the next Japanese-market Harrier, though Toyota hasn’t confirmed any plan to bring the name back.

The next Harrier is reportedly due in 2027 after a delay, with a longer wheelbase, a more sloping roofline and a more premium feel than the RAV4 it would sit above. Because the outgoing Venza was the Harrier sold under another name, a new Harrier would give Toyota an easy path to revive the nameplate in the U.S.

Carscoops reported in June 2025, citing the Japanese magazine Best Car, that the new Harrier would have a wheelbase of about 2,770 mm (109.1 inches), roughly 80 mm longer than today’s, with a length of about 4,750 mm (187 inches) and a roof height of about 1,550 mm (61 inches). Toyota had planned to launch it in 2026, but a safety scandal in Japan pushed it back to 2027, when the current Harrier will be seven years old. The report frames the U.S. return as possible rather than planned, describing the new model as one that "could pave the way for the Venza’s revival in the States."

In Japan, the Harrier is reportedly getting a new turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder in hybrid and plug-in hybrid forms, and it isn’t clear whether that engine would come to North America. Carscoops expects a U.S. Venza to be hybrid-only like the RAV4 Hybrid and RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid, and pointed to those models’ outputs of up to 236 horsepower with front-wheel drive and 320 horsepower with all-wheel drive. The new Harrier would likely stay on the TNGA-K platform and could get a 12.9-inch touchscreen and more over-the-air updates. The renderings that accompanied the report were speculative illustrations, not Toyota images.

The Venza left the U.S. after the 2024 model year because Toyota felt it overlapped too much with the Crown Signia. "If it weren’t so close to Crown Signia, we would have kept it," Toyota’s Dave Christ told Automotive News in 2023, as reported by Motor1. A coupe-roofed Venza would need to look different enough from the Signia to avoid the same problem, and the Signia’s sales are still growing, up 10.5% to 17,983 through September according to Toyota’s third-quarter sales summary.

The Toyota Report Take

A coupe-style Venza makes more sense than the old one did, because a sloping roof would finally separate it from the upright Crown Signia and give Toyota a stylish alternative to the RAV4 without stepping on the Signia’s toes. This is still a magazine report, though, and Toyota retired the Venza once for being redundant. We’d want to see the Harrier revealed in Japan, and a clear signal from Toyota’s U.S. arm, before counting on the name returning here.