Toyota Japan has confirmed a running change for the Harrier, effective 3 August 2026 — the petrol and PHEV variants are being dropped, leaving HEV as the sole option.
The refresh brings a few other updates alongside that. A 100V/1,500W accessory socket is now standard, having previously cost extra on HEV grades. There’s also a new Night Shade special edition with a mesh front grille and body-coloured door handles, plus a new Neutral Black paint option replacing the outgoing 202 Black. A few dealer-fit accessories, like floor mats and number plate frames, go up slightly in price too.
Prices rise by about ¥100,000 across the range as a result, which Toyota puts down to higher material, logistics, and labour costs. New pricing now runs from ¥4,396,700 to ¥5,561,600 depending on grade.
The sales numbers explain why this makes sense. Toyota sold 25,790 Harriers in Japan between January and June 2026, and of those, 70% were HEV, 28% were petrol, and just 2% were PHEV — meaning the two variants being cut made up less than a third of sales combined. Toyota expects most of those PHEV buyers to shift over to the RAV4, Crown Sport, or Crown Estate instead, all of which come better equipped these days anyway.
Here’s the interesting part, though: Malaysia isn’t playing catch-up on this one. UMW Toyota Motor dropped the Harrier’s petrol variant back in March 2026, a full five months before Japan followed suit. The Malaysian Harrier 2.5 HEV starts from RM289,000 on the road without insurance, running the same A25A-FXS 2.5-litre engine and electric motor combo for a combined 217 PS, backed by a five-year unlimited-mileage warranty and eight years on the hybrid components.
Local sales have held up decently too — 2,429 units in the first half of 2026, including 467 in June alone, good enough for 29th place overall with a 0.6% market share. The Harrier’s best year in Malaysia so far was 2024, with 6,315 units sold.
Mr. Tempo’s Take
There’s a habit of assuming Japan always moves first and everyone else follows a step behind. This one flips that on its head — Malaysia went hybrid-only on the Harrier back in March, and Japan only just caught up to the same call in August, a full five months later. Neither market made much noise about it either time; the petrol variant simply disappeared from the price list quietly, in both places. Worth remembering next time someone assumes Malaysia’s always trailing.
Source: Creative Trend
