Toyota’s incoming mini-HiLux is beginning to take shape, with the brand promising it will be tough, cheap and likely not an EV, as the Japanese giant makes moves to take on vehicles like the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz.
Better still, we’ve moved well beyond rumours, with Toyota confirming development work is underway, and the new model could launch as early as 2025.
As reported in CarsGuide, the latest details come from Toyota in South Africa (a ute-loving market similar to our own), where the company’s executives have suggested the new model will “take the market by storm”, while also making some bold promises about just how capable the vehicle – expected to be called the Stout – will be.
“It won’t be a half-ton bakkie (ute),” Toyota South Africa senior vice president for sales and marketing, Leon Theron, told local publication IOL.
“We believe it will take the market by storm and are still doing a lot of development around it.”
The comments suggest the new model will actually be closer to a one-tonne HiLux in payload capacity than originally thought, with the brand more focused on offering an affordable answer to the HiLux than it is on competing in a particular size class.
“Something that’s in the same space but more affordable than the Hilux that we’re looking at releasing around 2025 or 2026,” Toyota South Africa’s vice president of marketing and communications, Glenn Crompton, told IOL.
The discussion formed part of a local media roundtable, where Toyota went on to suggest an EV-only ute wasn’t yet on the table, pointing to emerging markets (of which Australia is currently considered), which are still heavily wedded to petrol and diesel.
“Toyota remains committed to producing products tailored to local needs. If you look at Global South the focus is on quality, durability and reliability,” Theron told the publication.
“There’s been a lot of criticism levelled at Toyota for their lack of commitment to new energy vehicles, but nothing could be further from the truth. We have always maintained that different regions need different strategies to move Toyota from an automotive company to a mobility company.”
It’s coming, and coming soon. So watch this space.
Keyword: Cheap, tough and not an EV: Toyota says its all-new mini-HiLux will 'take the market by storm'!