Toyota electric dual-cab ute confirmed, a chance for Australia
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Plans for an electric Toyota ute in Europe have been locked in – possibly based on this car-derived EPU concept – and it is a chance for Australia, albeit yet to be confirmed.
Toyota has confirmed plans for an electric ute in Europe – with a familiar name and seemingly four doors – by the end of next year.
And it could be a possibility for Australia, provided it has the driving range, towing capacity and payload to meet the expectations of Toyota’s local division.
It could make the Japanese car giant among the first of the top ute makers to launch a battery-powered pick-up locally, after an electric Isuzu D-Max confirmed for local showrooms, but ahead of Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and more.
Toyota today teased the silhouette of a ute as part of plans to sell six electric vehicles in Europe by the end of 2026, alongside the Urban Cruiser and C-HR+ small SUVs, bZ4X mid-size SUV, and two more SUV-like models.
No other details of the new ute have been confirmed, and it’s not clear if it will be a car-derived model, or will use heavy-duty, ladder-frame underpinnings.
If it is the former, it could be a production version of the EPU concept shown in 2023, an electric ute smaller than a HiLux with showroom-ready styling and car-like underpinnings.
But Toyota Europe says its future electric vehicles will adopt a “traditional naming strategy to make them familiar and instantly recognisable to customers”.
It opens the door for the electric pick-up to wear the HiLux badge, as Toyota’s only ute in the region.
MORE: Toyota's first electric ute won't be a HiLux
Toyota has previously shown an electric HiLux concept (above), but it was a single-cab prototype with a short driving range aimed at city use in South-East Asia.
Production of the single-cab has been confirmed to begin in limited numbers for the Thai market by the end of next year, but the proportions of the vehicle in the teaser look distinctly like a dual-cab.
A new-generation HiLux is due to be revealed in the next 12 months, but it will be a heavy update of the current model – launched in 2015 – not an all-new vehicle, so it may not be able to support an electric model.
Toyota Australia was unable to comment on the European teaser image.
MORE: Showroom version of electric Toyota HiLux concept on wish list for Australia
“Electric pick-up trucks … are starting to emerge, but they’re not … affordable,” Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley told media at the EPU concept’s reveal at the 2023 Tokyo motor show.
“Then here comes Toyota with a next-generation mid-sized ute concept, a practical yet stylish [electric car] with a [car-derived] body.
“I can’t comment about how close these concepts might be to our dealer showrooms, but it sure looks to me at least when I look at these vehicles, it looks like it could go into production with minimal changes.”
Hanley has previously signalled that if a Toyota ute is sold in Australia, the company would prefer a dual-cab, four-wheel-drive vehicle with enough driving range for long-distance touring.
“Given the enormous challenges we face in electrifying commercial vehicles, it seems to make sense we’d start with an electric ute for the on-road market,” he said in August 2023.
“In fact, I can imagine a day, perhaps a few years from now, when such a vehicle could help transform the e-mobility landscape in many countries.
“Of course, what I’m really hanging out for is exactly the same thing that everybody’s asking the question about, and that is a load-carrying, trailer-towing, remote-area, off-road HiLux 4×4 with zero tailpipe emissions. What a vehicle that would be, and it’s possible.
“But imagine the size, weight and charging time of the battery pack that you’d need to do all that and achieve 800 kilometres of [driving] range. Rest assured, Toyota is working on it.”
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