For years fans of Toyota trucks have been clamoring for a return to the compact pickup, the kind of mini-truck that helped Toyota establish itself in the US in the 70s and 80s. The Tacoma has gotten too big and expensive to fill that role, serving double duty as a workhorse and off-roader. Now a pickup that slots below the Tacoma has been confirmed.
Speaking with Motor Trend, head of planning and strategy for Toyota Motor North America Cooper Ericksen said regarding the truck, “Decisions have been made. The question is when we can slot it in. It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ at this point.” He continued, “We’ve studied it a lot. We’re dedicated to it. We’re going to figure out how to make it work.”
According to the article, Toyota has been plotting such a move since long before the debut of the Ford Maverick. That truck has been a success, and Toyota believes it can sell 100,000 to 150,000 units of its own compact pickup. The article states that it will be a unibody construction and be built on Toyota’s TNGA platform. That likely means it will be front- or all-wheel-drive with a transversely mounted, possibly hybrid powertrain.
While Toyota’s earliest pickups were body-on-frame, even the beloved 2WD models with low lift height beds, Toyota does have a long history of building unibody utes as well. The Publica, Corona, Corona Mark II, and Crown, have all had pickup versions built from their unibody designs.
Like those utes and 2WD Hiluxes, the truck won’t need rugged off-road abilities. This will allow Toyota to keep its costs down. Still,Erickson is adamant that it won’t be watered down. “If we do this it is going to be a Toyota truck. It needs to have certain capabilities and attributes and functionality. It needs to be a workhorse.” The Toyota EPU concept shown at the 2023 Tokyo Mobility Show may preview what the design might look like.
Whatever it ends up being, it’s still a ways off. Toyota has no release date in mind. As the article says, “There is no timeline for a final decision on a compact pickup right now because there is so much focus on what Toyota is building right now, says David Christ, general manager of the Toyota Division. With so much upheaval in the auto industry that is transitioning to electric vehicles and grappling with tariffs, regulations and uncertainty, annual plans completed before tariffs were announced have to be revisited and updated.”
Regardless of when it comes or what it looks like, we think we have the perfect name for it: Stout.
It’s about time. I used to own a 1918 Toyota SR5 standard cab “long bed”. It was the perfect size. Not some silly, over sized bro-dozer that needs one and a half parking spaces, and a ladder to get into, and no “off road ” package for driving on normal roads, which is all most of the dozer drivers do with theirs.
Bring it.
Err…. 1981 SR5. Haven’t had my coffee yet.
I was wondering if that had electric start or, needed an old crank up front.
Hurry and get it done. Keep it simple. Usable. Straightforward.
I had an s10, Tacoma and Mazda small pickups. Great for moving what you need and easy to drive.
…As given how we may try on reading this article, then I suspect that while the marketing (mainly situation) would be rather restricted to North America, not because it is an example of a market where pickup trucks (plural is pickups and also known as ute / utes in Australia and New Zealand / NZ and bakkie / bakkies in South Africa) deeply thrives there, as going to the other side of the Americas – as we say South America and Central America / plus Caribbean – therefore such types of commercial vehicles (referring to pick-up trucks) in those markets are profoundly popular, especially in Brazil for example, where contemporary compact pickups sold and made there are instead based on front-wheel driven (FF layout) subcompact / B-segment / supermini vehicles. (Plus, in this period, sales of Toyota in the Brazilian market and neighboring Argentina is neither big nor healthy in contrast to Stellantis’ Fiat for ex..)
In that case, with the compact pickup segment in the North American market currently and mainly consists of Hyundai’s Santa Cruz (which is just an Elantra of Mitsubishi / Chrysler origins) and Ford’s Maverick (underneath is of Volvo origins since the Blue Oval previously owned the Swedish carmaker) – with the addition of the fact that the pickup market in Europe have already been said goodbye (with the already-facelifted and incumbent Nissan Navara already last to be assembled on European soil as with the Ford Ranger-based Volkswagen / VW Amarok’s market share there is on the verge of declining and among others), as Toyota having already involved in a partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroen’s and Fiat Chrysler’s succeeding company (Stellantis) courtesy of the [Toyota] ProAce light commercial vehicle (LCV) range – which is however mainly relegated for Europe, thus with the impact of Trump’s return in the White House and rumors of Ford handing its position in the European market to fellow (but current) World Rally Championship (WRC) participant Toyota as a result would mean(t) that the popularity of both Stellantis and pick-ups in the rest of Latin America would be ideal for Toyota to expand its cooperation with the successor to PSA-FCA.
That would mean, as while STLA (Stellantis) already developed the Ram Rampage along with its siblings Fiat Toro and Jeep’s Compass and Commander (aka [Jeep] Meridian) – both autos are based on Fiat Uno (later [Fiat] Punto) bones that were also reengineered by / with General Motors (GM) back when the latter owned Opel / Vauxhall, which is additionally similar to how ‘Lantis (as in Stellantis and not the Mazda model from the 1990s aka 323F outside Japan) have already been doing with the [Peugeot] Landtrek (which is essentially a Chinese Changan F70 but its also offered in rear-wheel drive compared to the Toro and Rampage that’s only for South America aka SA for short) which was later sold as [Fiat] Titano and [Ram] 1200 – the latter was previously used in a rebadged Mitsubishi Triton / L200 that was in turn also sold as the Fiat Fullback, therefore in regards of saving costs and vice versa (VV) Toyota would follow the footsteps of its European-born peers (courtesy of Stellantis and also Renault Group) by remodeling and reselling the cars that are built on the Small Common Components and Systems platform (SCCS) whose rootes dated back before Stellantis – as the Rampage (Ram), Toro, [Jeep] Renegade, the already-canned Fiat 500X and others were part of the SCCS family.
LIkewise, I’ve also seen rumors of [Toyota] Previa returning but I recently noticed that if it were revived as a refurbished [Peugeot] 5008, then because of the fact vans in Europe and Australia are already reserved for commercial usage would mean the Previa may relive a as crossover SUV, and additionally, mechanical components found in Stellantis group vehicles plus fellow Exor marques Ferrari and Iveco would end up in Toyota’s parts bin – instead there would be Marelli radiators (formerly Magnetti Marelli as that company succeeded / replaced Calsonic Kansei), Multijet diesel engines and (to a lesser extent) transmissions of ZF and / or Jatco origins (Jatco is another Nissan-linked corporation along with Calsonic) to be traced in Toyota cars… (This is also given that Toyota have already faced series of controversies following its product recalls fifteen years ago like certification irregularities on its diesels, safety issues, among others as this even support the fact that Toyota is already known for less fun to drive and bland automobiles, because the Japanese are not known for food processors as Moulinex and others does too…)
Four paragraphs and 778 words……. you win!
I can’t read it. What did it say?
Something about food processors… Is this an AI test run?
It seems AI would probably be more effective at discussion at this point. But I’ve come to conclude that it can’t actually be a person sitting at a computer trying to communicate. For a while, I thought maybe it was just a language barrier thing and tried to ignore the comments, and didn’t want to poke any fun or be otherwise mean spirited. I think we’ve gotten past that point, and I don’t think there are any human feelings to be hurt.
I don’t think anyone can read it. It’s a bunch of random words cobbled together with lots of parentheticals (in parenthesis).
Amen.
+1. I think society, as a whole, has fallen into the “bigger is better, “upgrade = larger,” “remodel = expand” mindset. Automotive companies then try to make that vehicle the “family vehicle,” by adding four doors, making it flashy for night-on-the-town duty, massively upgrade the suspension for off-road everything, or throw in the biggest engine and make it the drag strip king. Why couldn’t the truck just serve one purpose, and that’s to haul stuff? Some might say, “well, I’m not as fortunate as you are to have multiple vehicles that accommodate different purposes.” Then I’ll respond with, “well, I didn’t have to spend $60k on a truck like you did.”
I’ve had people comment about my having 3 cars, 2 of which are garaged through the winter.
Two cost me about $3k. One was $7k. So $13k between 3 cars. My wife’s SUV was $5k, and we’ve taken it from 170k to now around 263k miles.
And they’re driving $50k+ Jeeps & trucks…but OK, I’m the one that has a problem. (OK, I do have a problem, because I really want to add an AW11 to the mix, but there’s no room in the garage. Also a kei truck would come in handy.)
I hope it will be good and for the right price. I’ve already put a small deposit down for a Slate Truck.
I wish for this to come true! And for it to be a success! So much people buy a full-size truck because they want to look the part, or they feel afraid in trafic and need to be in the largest vehicle they can get to feel safe, and as long as trucks are somewhat affordable, these people will buy them. It is common enough that almost no trucks are seen with a 4×8′ bed.
But for those who look at the work they need to do and buy a tool accordingly, these smaller trucks are a godsend! I wish it will have a bed long enough to carry a motorcycle, but to be fair, I prefer a car and a trailer…
I remember the Maverick having a trick tailgate that stopped at half-height in order to bring 4×8′ sheets on the wheel humps and on the tailgate, I do not know if the full-size trucks with 5.5′ bed have this kind of ideas?
I ask from ignorance: do they need that trick because of the dimensions of the cargo box?
You are right, the maverick is a truckified compact SUV so it is a 4-doors with a toy-truck bed. But at least they found a way to make it useful anyway!
There are no king cabs anymore on the market, and 2-doors pickup trucks are pretty much always contractor-grade, so a compact 2-doors truck would be great for the bed size, but probably not for the salespeople. If Toyota comes up with a compact pickup truck, chances are it will be a toy-truck bedded 4-doors, and I hope some thoughtful tricks will make this really useful and capable, as written in the article!
“We’re bringing back a legit small pick-up!”
Yay!
“It will be transverse engined and probably a hybrid.”
…
Second vehicle I owned was a Chevy LUV (Isuzu). I took that truck from Vancouver to Tijuana. As for actually hauling stuff, I’ve carried 8′ lumber inside my Suzuki Samurai TinTop. There’s a lot of marketing “needs” these days.