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Toyota has at last sped up its EV rollout, confirming this week that it will have six new electric vehicles on sale by next year including a battery-powered ute.
And while news the sleeping auto giant is about wake up and shake up the EV space should be celebrated, it does beg the question – do you really want an electric dual-cab when we're still waiting for a response to the Ford Ranger Raptor?
Signs are now pointing to the long-awaited new HiLux launching next year, though it seems it won't actually be entirely new. A carryover platform and expected continuation of the current diesel engine mean the improvements will be made around the edges, rather than taking a ground-up approach.
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Toyota is yet to publicly comment on the new truck so they might surprise us yet but from the information we have so far, the very good Ford Ranger Raptor will still sit atop the ute pecking order.
What Toyota is working on, though, is an electric truck. News reported on CarsGuide this week clarified Toyota's electric vision, with the Japanese giant releasing an image which showed the six EVs it planned to launch "by 2026".
One of the shadowy images is almost certainly the EPU ute concept first revealed at the Tokyo Auto Show in 2023, which will now almost certainly go into production in Thailand towards the end of this year.
There's no doubt the ute game is changing in Australia – look to the fast-selling BYD Shark 6 PHEV or the incoming Ford Ranger PHEV for proof – but are we ready for a full-electric Toyota ute?
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Or to put it another way, do we even want one? Or would most Toyota fans prefer they sink some of that R&D into a HiLux that has some chance of climbing back to the top of ute sales charts – a position it surrendered to the Ford Ranger in 2023 and has never looked like reclaiming since?
Perhaps it is just that Toyota knows more than we do (the best-selling brand in Australia rarely gets it wrong). The brand's most senior executives in Australia are on the record as forecasting a tightening in the ute segment, especially in the face of new Chinese competitors, and that SUVs would be the nation's best-selling vehicles. So a refreshed HiLux, rather than a radically overhauled one, might suit that strategy best.
After all, the electric ute concept will no doubt be streamlined to Europe and other regions with tighter emissions regulations, with Toyota in Australia yet to officially confirm the product for our market.
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If it does arrive, tell me this; would you rather an all-electric dual-cab, or for Toyota to deliver a true GR HiLux that could shake up the very top of our ute market?
We have our own emissions rules now, after all, and time is running out.
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