Toyota Says Lack Of AWD Is Hurting C-HR Sales

The Toyota C-HR went on sale in the United States earlier this year and it appears the model hasn't been quite as successful as the company was hoping.

Carsalesbase shows Toyota only sold 21,889 units since April and that's significantly less than rivals such as the Chevrolet Trax and Honda HR-V. Toyota's well aware of the situation as the company's North American executive vice president of sales, Bob Carter, recently told Wards Auto the lack of an optional all-wheel drive system is "hurting its sales potential."

The C-HR is one of the few crossovers that doesn't offer all-wheel drive and it will soon by joined by the Nissan Kicks. Nissan North America's vice president of product planning, Michael Bunce, doesn't think the Kicks will suffer the same sales problem as the C-HR as he expects the model will be popular in cities on both the east and west coast. As a result, the company expects to sell at least 50,000-60,000 Kicks annually.

Bunce went on to say the C-HR probably isn't doing as well as it could because it's expensive for its segment. As he noted, “In the U.S. there’s still a great correlation between size and price point" and the C-HR starts at $22,500 which is "relatively high."

The product planner went on to say the Kicks will cost less than $19,000 and customers who need all-wheel drive can always move up to the Rogue Sport which starts at $21,420 and offer an optional all-wheel drive system for an additional $1,350.