Toyota holds a commanding lead on the Irish new car market, and with new 262 registrations due from July, the Japanese car brand has no intention of letting that slip. Toyota’s Irish distributor holds 14.2 per cent of the market, with 11,081 new cars registered by the end of last week. That’s a significant lead on Volkswagen in second place with 10.7 per cent, and Skoda with 9.6. According to Toyota Ireland’s head of corporate affairs, Zoe Bradley, 37 of its 41 dealers lead their respective local markets. To retain its lead, Toyota is due to introduce its facelifted Yaris Cross, alongside a new estate-style Touring version of its all-electric BZ. Facelifted Toyota Yaris Cross The Yaris Cross update is largely aesthetic, with the best-selling new car on the Irish market adopting the body-coloured honeycomb grille format carried on the new Rav4. Speaking of which, the popular mid-sized crossover will only be offered in plug-in hybrid from now on. Aidan Timmons, Toyota Ireland head of product and pricing, said the current regular hybrid has sold out and all future orders will only be for the plug-in hybrid. Claiming an electric-power-only range of 137km courtesy of a larger 22.7kWh battery, the plug-in Rav4 will have a combined total range of 1,000km. It can take up to 50kW on a DC charger. Offered for the first time in front-wheel-drive, the plug-in hybrid version delivers 268hp. An all-wheel drive version arriving later for 2027 sales will have 304hp. Prices start at €46,795 for the front-wheel-drive Sol version. As for the bigger booted BZ, it comes with a larger battery pack featuring 71kWh of usable capacity and a WLTP range of 560km on a single charge. The front-wheel drive BZ Touring can take a DC fast charge at up to 150kW. But the biggest hook for potential buyers of the slightly longer and taller version of the BZ will be in the back seat headroom and the boot, where luggage space is now 668 litres, a 48 per cent increase on the regular version. This can expand to 1,718 litres with the rear seats folded, a veritable electric van. Prices start at €44,356 for the Touring, a €3,000 premium on the regular BZ, which is also priced the same as the C-HR+ at €41,355. Toyota will be hoping the extra functionality will drive its sales in the EV market. Despite its overall market dominance, Toyota lies in sixth place for new EV sales, well behind Volkswagen and Hyundai. The regular BZ has recorded 645 sales so far this year, but that’s less than half the sales VW has recorded for its ID.4. Part of the Toyota pitch will be its battery warranty offering. The firm is now offering a 10-year or one million km battery cover on its EVs, which it says is well ahead of rivals offering 160,000km or 8-year warranties.