Toyota Slammed the Electric Highlander Before It Even Went on Sale

Toyota brought a lowered Urban Highlander on 22-inch wheels to the 2026 SEMA Show, a custom build of an electric SUV that isn’t on sale yet.

It arrived with a matching Urban C-HR, another battery-electric crossover, and both wear a satin-white and black two-tone finish over a lower-than-stock stance. The pair share the Urban Life corner of Toyota’s display with the Crown Signia GT-S Concept and actor Sung Kang’s AE86, the car called "Lola" from the film DRIFTER. Toyota split its stand into four themed areas, Urban Life, Off-Road, Snowy Terrain and Race Day, and says the lineup covers gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, battery-electric and hydrogen power.

Toyota listed the builds in a release issued from Las Vegas on November 3, the opening day of a show that runs through November 6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The release gives no further detail on the two Urban electric builds beyond the ride height, the wheel size and the paint, so there is no word on suspension parts, power or whether any of it is meant to become an accessory.

The Highlander underneath is the fifth-generation, 2028 model that Toyota revealed in February as a battery-electric three-row SUV with no gas or hybrid version. Toyota’s specifications list XLE, XLE Premium and Limited grades, 77.0 kWh and 95.8 kWh batteries, 221 horsepower for the front-drive XLE and 338 horsepower for the dual-motor all-wheel-drive versions. It will be built in Georgetown, Kentucky, with batteries from Toyota’s plant in Liberty, North Carolina, and Toyota expects it to go on sale in early 2027, with pricing to follow closer to that date.

The rest of the stand is a mix of builds Toyota has already shown and a few new additions. The five Woodland concepts (RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid, Sienna, bZ, Grand Highlander and Crown Signia) fill the Off-Road area with Tundra and Sequoia Trailhunter builds, and the five tracked Snowhunter concepts based on the Tundra, Tacoma, 4Runner, Land Cruiser and Sequoia hold the Snowy Terrain area. The Race Day display carries the 2026 GRMN Corolla, the hydrogen-burning GR Corolla H2, a GR Corolla ARA rally car, a 2027 GR86 and a GR Corolla fitted with Genuine GR Performance Parts, a GR Supra in the 7-Eleven collaboration livery, and the very last fifth-generation GR Supra built.

"Car culture is all about personal expression, and this week is the ultimate celebration of that spirit," said Owen Peacock, general manager of Toyota Marketing. Toyota’s usual fine print applies to every car on the stand: they are special project prototypes with parts that are not available from Toyota, may void the warranty, may affect performance and safety, and may not be street legal.

The Toyota Report Take

The Urban Highlander is the most interesting car on the stand precisely because Toyota says so little about it. The electric Highlander is still months from showrooms, it replaces one of the brand’s best sellers outright, and Toyota has every reason to get people comfortable with it before it reaches showrooms, so putting it in front of the SEMA crowd as a lowered street car rather than an off-road toy is a deliberate choice. A three-row family EV is a hard sell to the people who walk the SEMA halls, and dressing it like a show car is a cheap way to make it look desirable rather than dutiful. Whether any of the look reaches dealers as wheels or a lowering kit is the question worth asking Toyota this week.