Toyota Confirms Hybrid and Electric Pickups at Auto Shanghai
While most of the attention in China was on Toyota’s electric crossover, there was news for truck fans too.
Toyota has long been a leader in fuel efficiency, and took hybrids into the mainstream with its wildly popular Prius. That said, the Japanese giant hasn’t been nearly as proactive where it comes to pure electric vehicles. It’s also still trying to make hydrogen happen, which has always been a longshot, and looks more like one every day. Meanwhile, other automakers are shouting from the rooftops about just how totally done with the internal combustion engine they are.
But now, we’ve gotten some news that electric cars — and particularly electric Toyota pickups — are one the way.
Details come from our friends at Motor Authority, who reported on statements Toyota made last week during Auto Shanghai 2021. Now, the focus of the company’s presentation at the show was on the forthcoming all-EV sub brand BZ, and its electric compact crossover. But more interesting to truck fans is confirmation that both hybrid and electric pickups are in development.
Details on the models are non-existent at this point, and there’s no telling whether Toyota will choose electrify the Tacoma and the Tundra, or release a pickup under the BZ brand. If I had a to guess, I’d say that at least here in the States, the first pickup will be badged as a Toyota, and use a familiar name.
Because while everyone from established players like Ford and General Motors, to upstarts like Rivian are poised to deliver electric rigs, how enthusiastically they’ll be adopted remains to be seen. If they’re anywhere near as capable as the experiential electric Land Cruiser 70, performance is going to be properly exciting.
Now, while there’s been lots of speculation on what Toyota is planning for the next-generation Tacoma and Tundra, and we know that the trucks will share a common platform, there’s been no noise about how tractable the chassis will be to an electric drivetrain. While I’m no engineer, I know that there are significant hurdles to adapting architecture for green power, which is why Ford and Volkswagen went with clean-sheet designs, and perpetually floundering Alfa Romeo just had to scrap its billion dollar Giorgio platform.
Given how conservative Toyota is as a company, I don’t expect it’ll force anything into the market just because the competition is doing it. I’m confident that any electric trucks will be fully realized, and extremely competitive in the segment. Here’s hoping news about them comes sooner rather than later…
Photos: Toyota