2027 Toyota Highlander: What's Changing, Release Date and Pricing for New York Families

Published September 1, 2026 · Last updated September 1, 2026

The 2026 Highlander was the last one you could buy with a gas engine or a hybrid. For 2027 the nameplate goes fully electric — a clean-sheet, three-row battery SUV built in Kentucky, with two grades, two battery sizes and up to a manufacturer-estimated 320 miles of range. After twenty-five years and four generations of gasoline, that is a real decision for a New York family, not a spec-sheet footnote.

What's changing on the 2027 Toyota Highlander?

Effectively everything. This is not a facelift or a new engine option — it is a different vehicle wearing a familiar badge. Toyota dropped the 2.4-liter turbo four and the 2.5-liter hybrid and replaced them with electric motors. Every Highlander sold in the United States since 2000 had a gasoline engine. The 2027 does not.

Underneath is a modified TNGA-K platform reworked to carry a battery pack under the floor, and the proportions moved with it: the wheelbase stretches to 120.1 inches, roughly eight inches longer than before, with length up to 198.8 inches, width to 78.3 and height down slightly to 67.3. All that extra wheelbase lands where families feel it, in second- and third-row legroom.

The styling breaks with the old Highlander's deliberately unremarkable shape: full-width LED lighting front and rear, hammerhead daytime running lights, semi-flush door handles, 19-inch wheels on XLE and 22s available on Limited. Those headlights double as a charge indicator, showing state of charge without unlocking the car. New paint Spellbound joins Wind Chill Pearl, Heavy Metal, Everest, Reservoir Blue and Midnight Black Metallic, with two-tone black roofs reserved for the Limited.

The rear tells the same story: a thin full-width light bar, a strong shoulder line and an integrated spoiler, with the tumblehome pulled in far more aggressively than any Highlander before it. None of that is decoration — an electric SUV earns range through aerodynamics, and this is what that looks like from behind.

When is the 2027 Toyota Highlander release date?

There is a second clock running here. The weeks around a launch are often the strongest weeks to buy the outgoing car, because factory support on remaining stock frequently beats what replaces it. If a 2026 Highlander Hybrid is what your routine actually needs, our lease specials and manufacturer incentives show where that stands today, and remaining gas and hybrid stock is finite by definition.

Will the 2027 Toyota Highlander cost more?

Almost certainly, and the honest answer is that nobody outside Toyota knows by how much. MSRP has not been published.

The 2026 Highlander opened at roughly $47,365 for the gas model and $49,115 for the hybrid before destination, with a loaded Hybrid Platinum around $56,475. Independent estimates for the electric car cluster in the low-to-mid fifties for an XLE and into the sixties for a Limited AWD with the big battery. Treat those as educated guesses, because that is what they are.

The useful reference point is the competition rather than the predecessor: this car is aimed at the Kia EV9 and the Hyundai Ioniq 9, both three-row electric SUVs starting in the mid-fifties. Undercut them and it looks like a bargain; match them and it is merely competitive.

One caution on incentives. Federal and state electric-vehicle credits have changed repeatedly over the past two years, and quoting a number here is a good way to be wrong by the time you read it. Our incentives page reflects what actually applies the day you shop.

Every 2027 Highlander configuration, compared

Two grades, two batteries, three range figures. Here is the whole lineup, with the 2026 gas and hybrid cars underneath for context.

Read the middle two rows carefully, because that is where the money decision sits. All-wheel drive on the small battery costs seventeen miles of range; the big battery gives fifty back. For a family that drives to Montauk or the Poconos more than twice a year, the 95.8-kWh pack is not a luxury.

Range, charging and a realistic New York plan

Let us be direct about the part most articles skip. The Highlander now requires a charging plan, and in this city that is not automatic.

Every 2027 Highlander uses a North American Charging System port as standard, meaning direct access to the Tesla Supercharger network alongside the usual public ones — a real advantage in a market where charger reliability varies block to block. Toyota quotes 10 to 80 percent in about 30 minutes on a compatible DC fast charger.

With a driveway, a garage space you control, or a building with Level 2 chargers, this is straightforward and cheap: overnight residential rates cost a fraction of what 24 mpg costs at the pump, and you never make a fuel stop again. If you park on the street under alternate-side rules, be honest about whether public fast charging fits your week. Some people manage it comfortably; plenty do not.

For anyone in that second group there is a real alternative on our lot. The 2027 Grand Highlander keeps gas, Hybrid and Hybrid MAX power and is slightly larger inside, and the RAV4 Hybrid and Crown Signia cover the same ground with a gas station.

One feature reads like a gimmick until the power goes out: vehicle-to-load capability lets the Highlander run external devices from its battery. Anyone who sat through a multi-day outage in the Rockaways will understand the appeal.

Inside: screens, seats and what carries over from the Highlander you know

The cabin is where the redesign feels like a step up rather than sideways. A 14-inch touchscreen runs the latest Toyota Audio Multimedia with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, paired with a 12.3-inch driver display. Dynamic ambient lighting, front acoustic glass, USB charging in all three rows and dual Qi wireless chargers in the console round it out.

Seating runs to seven. Second-row captain's chairs are standard, with a bench available on the XLE AWD for families who need the extra belt more than the walk-through. Interior colors are Black, Portobello and Misty Gray, and the Limited's fixed panoramic glass roof is the largest Toyota has fitted to anything, reaching all three rows rather than stopping at the second.

Cargo comes to 15.9 cubic feet behind the third row — the same as the outgoing Highlander — and 45.6 cubic feet with it folded, slightly less than the gas car's 48.4. Toyota traded a little maximum volume for eight inches of wheelbase, which most families with a teenager in the back will call a good deal.

Some details we cannot confirm yet, and we would rather say so than invent them: Toyota has not published every cabin measurement or the full options matrix. Where a feature has not been detailed for 2027, assume it behaves as it did on the 2026 car — which is why some photography here shows a previous-generation Highlander. Available JBL Premium Audio is confirmed for the XLE AWD and Limited, and the console layout and cup-holder arrangement below come from the outgoing car, which is the best guide we have until Toyota details the 2027 cabin fully.

How it compares with the last restyle

The reference point is 2023, when the fourth-generation Highlander got its mid-cycle overhaul: the 3.5-liter V6 gave way to a 2.4-liter turbo four — less displacement, more torque, better economy — alongside a reworked grille and a larger available touchscreen up the range. A careful, incremental update to a car selling on reputation.

The 2027 does the opposite. Toyota skipped the usual next step and replaced the vehicle outright, which says something about where the nameplate was heading: the regular Highlander had been losing three-row shoppers to its own larger sibling. Rather than defend the middle, Toyota moved it somewhere the Grand Highlander is not.

Park the two front three-quarter views side by side and the break is obvious. The restyled car kept an upright grille, separated headlight clusters and a tall nose built around an engine. The 2027 replaces all of it with full-width lighting, a flat aerodynamic face and semi-flush handles — the shape of a car with a battery under the floor rather than a radiator up front.

For a returning owner that changes the question. A 2023 buyer trading up is not renewing a lease on a familiar car — they are switching fuel and switching how they refuel. Worth a long test drive rather than a loop around the block, and worth doing before the outgoing hybrids are gone.

Safety and what Toyota covers

Every 2027 Highlander arrives with Toyota Safety Sense 4.0: Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection, full-speed-range Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist, Lane Tracing Assist and Proactive Driving Assist, plus Blind Spot Monitor with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, front and rear parking assist with automatic braking, hill start assist and a rear seat reminder. All-wheel-drive models add Multi-Terrain Select and Crawl Control.

Warranty follows Toyota's standard structure — 36 months or 36,000 miles basic, 60 months or 60,000 miles powertrain — plus the extended coverage that applies to electric components and the traction battery, and ToyotaCare scheduled maintenance with roadside assistance. Because this is an all-new vehicle, confirm the exact battery coverage on the window sticker rather than assuming it matches another Toyota EV.

What the awards actually say

The electric Highlander is too new to have been crash-tested or awarded anything, so treat any claim otherwise with suspicion. What the nameplate has earned is still worth knowing, because it is why many families are considering this car at all.

The 2024 Toyota Highlander was an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ and carries a 5-Star Overall Safety Rating from NHTSA. Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com named the 2024 Highlander a Best Family SUV, and U.S. News and World Report named the 2024 Highlander Hybrid Best Hybrid SUV for Families. Toyota as a brand has repeatedly taken Kelley Blue Book's Best Resale Value and Brand Image honors — awards that show up on your monthly payment rather than a wall, since resale sets lease residuals.

The honest caveat, because you will find it if you look. IIHS tightened its criteria and no Toyota SUV earned a 2026 Top Safety Pick; the 2026 Highlander fell short on the updated moderate overlap front test, where the second-row dummy submarined under the lap belt. IIHS said plainly the Highlander would have won the award but for that one test, and that the issue is not unique to Toyota. Whether the redesigned 2027 fixes it is unknown until ratings arrive.

Why the Highlander works on New York streets

Start with the case against, since it is short and real. At 198.8 inches the Highlander runs about sixteen and a half feet, nearly four inches longer than the outgoing car. On a residential block in Bay Ridge or Forest Hills, four inches is occasionally the difference between a spot and another lap around the neighborhood. If you park on the street, measure honestly.

Now the case for. City driving is where electric powertrains do their best work — no idling losses in stop-and-go traffic, regenerative braking recovering energy at every red light, and instant torque for merging onto the Belt Parkway from a short ramp. The 287-mile FWD figure that looks merely adequate on a highway spec sheet is generous against a New York routine measured in single-digit daily miles.

Then the running costs. Home charging is dramatically cheaper per mile than gasoline at metro-area pump prices, and an electric drivetrain deletes oil changes, spark plugs, belts and exhaust work from the service calendar. For a household covering 8,000 to 12,000 miles a year, that gap compounds faster than the sticker difference suggests. The factory NACS port helps too, removing the adapter question on day one. Shopping the neighbors before you commit? Our bZ and C-HR pages cover smaller electric Toyotas, and the 4Runner sits at the opposite end of the same showroom.

Cross-shop the whole segment without moving your car

Plaza Toyota is part of Plaza Auto Mall, family-owned on Nostrand Avenue since 1975: five new-vehicle brands, a certified pre-owned program for each, and a multibrand used operation covering makes we do not sell new — over 1,000 vehicles in stock, all within a seven-minute walk.

For a three-row shopper that geography does real work. The Highlander's direct rivals are not down the highway, they are next door. Drive the electric Highlander, then walk to the Hyundai Palisade and the Kia Telluride the same afternoon — one appointment, three cars your family actually sits in. Prefer a minivan's doors? The Honda Odyssey and Kia Carnival are a short walk apart, the Honda Pilot covers the gas three-row case, and Acura of Brooklyn shares the block for anything more premium.

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Service offers pickup and drop-off across the entire NYC metro area, and purchased vehicles are delivered free within 25 miles. Plaza Auto Mall: No Hassle, No Pressure, No Middlemen.

Shopping a Highlander at Plaza Toyota

Arrive with the numbers settled. Our pre-approval asks for no Social Security number and no date of birth, and returns a real payment range before anyone touches your credit.

Then stack what is available: lease specials update monthly and often combine with factory incentives. An early trade appraisal matters more than usual this year, because three-row values move fast when a segment leader changes fuel.

Below new-car money? Browse certified pre-owned Toyota models, see how the Toyota Certified program works, or search our used inventory and the wider Plaza Auto Mall used selection. Already driving one? Schedule service with pickup and drop-off, and Plaza Body Shop handles collision work.

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