Toyota is entering the highly competitive yet lucrative subcompact SUV segment with the C-HR that was officially revealed today at the Geneva Motor Show.

The brand’s rival to the Honda HR-V, Nissan Juke and Mazda CX-3, remains fairly true to last year’s C-HR Concept with a distinctive, albeit overly busy design with cuts and creases, featuring a sloping, coupe-like roofline and hidden rear door handles.

Underpinning the C-HR is the flexible Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) shared with the Prius, which allowed the use of the latter’s gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain, making it the first of its kind in its class.

The 1.8-liter hybrid unit from the Prius delivers 122 horsepower with CO2 emissions of less than 90g/km, which Toyota says, is “unrivalled within its segment”.

Alternatively, the C-HR will be offered in Europe with the new 115PS (114hp) 1.2-liter turbocharged gasoline engine first used in the Auris, connected to a 6-speed manual gearbox or a Continuously Variable automatic Transmission system. It will also get a 2.0-liter CVT-only model, which the company said will be available for certain markets –not the UK, without naming them.

Toyota will launch the C-HR in North America early next year.

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