Life after diesel: Why the 2025 Toyota HiLux Hybrid could be the brand's best ute ever | Opinion

Like it or not, the end-of-days for diesel is upon us, and there will be few manufacturers brave enough to launch an all-new diesel powertrain in the years ahead.

Toyota itself is on record as saying the end of arguably its most popular fuel source is coming, and that its portfolio would need to change, which leads us to ponder just what will be powering the new Toyota Hilux, due in 2025.

And if you ask me, I expect Toyota has already laid its cards on the table, you just need to know how to read them.

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Take the all-new LandCruiser Prado, due in Australia this year. Like the HiLux, it's predecessor a diesel-only model, offered with the ute’s 2.8-litre turbodiesel engine.

And while that engine will carryover to the new Prado, it won’t be alone. Toyota Australia finally confirmed the off-road focused SUV will also nab a petrol-hybrid powertrain. What happens next is pretty clear, though, not confirmed – the diesel is gently phased out, and the hybrid lives on.

After first locking the petrol-hybrid Prado out of Australia, Toyota’s VP of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, now says it will come "sooner rather than later”.

"We don't have a date, we are investigating the potential of whether that powertrain is suitable for our market. It's part of our overall decarbonisation and multi-pathway strategy. It would be an outstandingly good attribute to our product line-up," he says.

"Speculatively, we would rather do it sooner rather than later, but we don't have a date.”

The hybrid powertrain in question is Toyota’s i-Force Max, which links a 2.4-litre turbo-petrol engine with a 36kW electric motor integrated into an eight-speed transmission to pump out a total 243kW and 630Nm. It should prove both powerful and efficient, and still deliver a 2.7-tonne braked towing capacity – admittedly down on the three-tonne-plus expected from the diesel.

So, a carryover diesel engine in an all-new model, followed by a more modern petrol-hybrid — I suspect that’s a launch strategy that will become familiar when the new HiLux arrives next year.

The question then surely becomes which would be more popular, hybrid or diesel? And my money is on the hybrid. Sure, at 2.7-tonnes it might lack the out-and-out towing power of its diesel rival, but it will generate more power, sip cheaper fuel — and use less of it — and undoubtedly offer a smoother and quieter drive experience.

You won’t have to plug it in, petrol is every bit as common as diesel (and will likely soon become more so), and hybrids are a proven and popular technology.

Only time will tell if our theory proves accurate, but I’ve got my money on it. And even Toyota is making noises about its portfolio needing to change,

"We were studying the options on all our cars before NVES, but let's be clear — whatever happens, there's going to be an emissions standard, and we will have to adjust our portfolio of product," Hanley has told CarsGuide.

"I just don't know now what that means, we're studying that, at the appropriate time we'll let you know."