Toyota Is Developing A Compact Pickup for MY 2025

Not sure where to create this thread, as according to Crain Communications well-regarded and subscription-only publication Automotive News, as well as Motor Trend, Toyota is developing a new compact to sit under the Tacoma.

Toyota has either been watching us at Ford and developing a unibody vehicle off of TNGA-K in parallel, in order to be having something coming to market, sooner than much later (2025+).

To benchmark us, they would have started this unibody compact before we even revealed the Maverick in June 2021.



Toyota's effort is being suggested for the 2024 or 2025 MY, to be revealed to likely only authorized visitors in Plano, Texas, at the next Toyota USA Confidential in May/June 2023.

We leaked in mid-2018 that we were developing the P758 (Maverick), which didn't appear in spy shots until December 2018 as a Escape-based mule (below). Toyota either was chasing Hyundai's future Santa Cruz or took that early intel on our Maverick very serious.



For Toyota to have such a vehicle ready for the 2024 model year at all, sounds unrealistic, but still possible if they committed to doing it no later than 2019 and did it in just 4 years.

That is unless, it is meant to be 2024.5 vehicle at earliest, meaning it got initialized during the pandemic in 2020 and 2020+4 = 2024 as a 2024.5 or 2025 model.


Yet weirdly enough, Toyota also "denied" the need for such a vehicle in May or early June 2020 to this source. CarBuzz is to me, the gutter of credible journalism. I very much question what "Sheldon Brown" actually knew to be in planning at Toyota in the spring of 2020 in Ann Arbor and/or Plano, compared to Mike Sweers who he reports to.


https://www.autonews.com/sales/toyota-mulls-compact-pickup-theres-catch

https://www.motortrend.com/news/toyota-compact-pickup-truck-under-consideration/

I chose this thread, as this was the last compact pickup sold and marketed by Toyota in North America, through October 17, 2004 (December 2004 for sales closeout of remaining '04 stock).

As you know, the Tacoma became king of sub-half ton sales when this debuted for the 2005 model year and hit dealers on October 18, 2004.



Toyota sold a record amount of Tacomas in 2021, beating all years on record at over a quarter million. The latest sales year to match the uber successful '80s Pickup, the Hilux-based predecessor that sold up to a record 321,000 trucks in 1986 (leftover 85s, 1986 and 1987 models) and started mysteriously declining with the last generation Pickup.



The pressure is on, now that our Maverick is doing really well and Hyundai is also in the segment.


As a product planner myself, I don't believe you'll ever see a body-on-frame ICE compact pickup ever again. The investment is just deemed "not worth it" across the board unfortunately. Maybe purely BEV. So do you think Toyota with their heritage, can bring their own unique twist to this new compact unibody segment? Remember the 2008 A-Bat Concept?



Basically a next gen RAV4 pickup, if based on TNGA-K.

 

Last week I saw a HomeParamount pest control maverick upfitted with a steel contractors cap. That is a fleet segment that Toyota dominated, or still does currently. The heat has to be on, considering the hybrid option, and the mpgs the standard Maverick deliver.

Ford GM, and Nissan have always competed in the compact/midsize fleet market depending on what was available and when, but Toyota has always been a strong contender. Plus the compact van segment has been dipping into this market, and Toyota does not sell one in NA.

 

I'd say we rather "borrowed" (not really) the idea for a hybrid pickup from Toyota and they weren't too happy about that (betrayal). I can't imagine they weren't studying every move we've been making since. The next generation Ranger is a BIG THREAT to the 2024 Tacoma and when we reveal that vehicle for USA, expect Toyota to leak and/or reveal the next generation truck in response.

 

Kind of a weird perspective.

At some level, every big business keeps a very close eye on both the market tend and the competition. I could tell you stories about my industry, and how sometimes we hire our competition for the sole strategy of keeping their logistics/truck drivers away from our primary markets.

I'm sure Toyota has spies, just like Ford, GM and Hyundai also all have spies. It's part of anticipating market demand.

 

I hate to say how much I adore the Maverick. Finally a right sized truck. I hope Toyota comes out with a clever offering (maybe add a manual and a locker?)

 

It seems to me that Toyota has no problem producing a myriad of different sized SUVs, I don’t think a true small sized pickup is a bad idea. Maybe something in a regular cab that gets great mpg would be a market leader. My how history repeats itself.

 

Honestly, the only thing that has kept me from buying a Maverik or Santa Cruz sized/purposed vehicle as a daily has been the reliability of the current makers vs the legendary Toyota standard. If they do release one, I'll be highly interested.

 

They should come out with a new model; make it small like the Tacomas used to be. There are very few small trucks now, even the smallest ones are still big compared to old ones

 

I loved my ‘83 pickup with a 20R and a 5 speed, just the right, small size. Was unkillable, was a mud truck at the end of its life. But the solid foundation and blueprint is still in there, somewhere in Toyota’s cobweb archives.

 

If there is one thing Toyota CAN'T do is new designs. Sucks but true. Great at making a pretty reliable vehicle, past that, nope. Look at the FJC. EVERYONE wanted a FJ40 update, removable top and doors, SFA, a Jeep competitor that was reliable to boot. What did we get? Yes, other then a few bugs with sheet metal cracking and such the first year or two, we got great reliability, past that, we got close to nothing that the public really expected or wanted and sales proved it. Yes it is a niche product and still sought after but if you would have offered an updated FJ40 and the FJC at the same time, sales of the FJ40 would have smoked the FJC from day one and Toyota would probably still be importing them.

 

Agreed, not a fan of most of Toyota's new designs. However, I do like the new Sequoia. Interested to see what they come up with here.

 

They say history repeats itself...see any similarities? Other than everything is four doors now, tiny and tuff Brat but still not a Tacoma though. Toughest act to follow.

 

Well if it's unibody it's not a truck, just another commuter econobox which happens to have a bed.

Why not revive the body-on-frame minitruck with a more efficient powertrain and maybe a lighter, stronger, and more rust-resistant frame?

I doubt Toyota has the gumption to do that, but if they did they'd sell like hotcakes. Not sure why everything has to be a either soulless econobox or a two ton plus brute these days.

 

What is this vehicle? I must have it.

 

market and times. the truck you speak of is a niche product now, not everyone needs or wants a general purpose truck (that includes me) and would rather have a better ride/fuel economy/utility. The price would not reflect the ability to mass sell them :/

 

There was another thread a week or so ago that sorta morphed into a compact truck discussion (link below if interested). Just thought this was a little more relevant in this thread. Funny though, the day after I was in that thread I saw a Ram 1000 on the road. I didn't even know what it was at the time. After some research though, I realized it isn't even sold in the US; must have been brought up from South America. (Sorry for the giant pics; I only know how to copy and paste)



The 1000 is ugly IMO, the bed is too small to make sense to me, and I just wouldn't want one. However, upon further digging I saw that Ram also has a 700, and it sells for under $15K. It's smaller, simpler, cheaper and more utilitarian (more bed, less cabin) than the 1000. The 700 looks better too, but I still wouldn't want one; never been a fan of Dodge/Ram, for well known reasons. Now, if TOYOTA made something like this, it would absolutely be my next truck, after my Taco moves on to greener pastures of course. One of the biggest gripes I hear from friends about my Tacoma is how "outdated" it is. What they call outdated though, I call simple. Simple, to me, translates to reliable. I don't know much about it, but I would think that in today's market, a simple, cheap, reliable compact truck (with a decent sized bed), would sell really well. A Toyota offering that competes directly with the Maverick and Santa Cruz? I'd buy one.



LINK: Holy cow! Tacoma and ridge line had a baby! | Page 5 | Tacoma World

 

So why not just buy a station wagon if you want good fuel economy? I think there'd be a huge market for a true compact under 3500 lbs which also got decent fuel economy.

Subaru Baja. I think they came with rear-facing seats in the bed to avoid the chicken tax.

 

It will be an EV if they do. Isn't the maverick and Tacoma similar in size?

 

I believe that is a Brat, the Baja came later.

 

The Tacoma is about the size of the first gen Tundra by now.