Toyota executive says Hilux (and Land Cruiser bakkie) WILL go hybrid…

A Toyota executive says the Hilux and Land Cruiser bakkies will in future feature “some type of electrification”.

According to motoring.com.au, Sean Hanley, Toyota Australia’s vice-president of sales and marketing, told media at the Tokyo Motor Show there was “no doubt” the bakkies would be electrified.

“We’ve always maintained that whatever we do in the future, we will continue to have Hiluxes, we will continue to have Land Cruisers going forward, but we will bring out – in the future – some type of electrification. There’s no doubt,” he said.

Hanley went on to say the first hybrid examples were “unlikely to be this generation Hilux, given that it’s mid-life”. That, as motoring.com.au points out, suggests the earliest possible arrival of such a variant would be around 2023.

Interestingly, Hanley hinted the bakkies could go the hybrid-diesel (rather than hybrid-petrol) route.

“We haven’t firmed up our product offering of the future, but potentially we could have hybrid diesels,” he said, according to the publication.

Hanley added bakkie owners in Australia’s agricultural industries were “very enthusiastic” for Toyota to bring out commercial vehicles in hybrid form and that “they’re also very enthusiastic to learn what those commercial vehicles would be capable of doing”.

“It’s incumbent on us to provide vehicles and mobility services of the future that suit their requirements and reduce any impact vehicles have on the earth. Whatever we bring out, we will have the capability required to fulfil their requirements,” he said.