√Exclusive: New Toyota HiLux ute due in 2025
Australia’s top-selling vehicle for the past seven years – the Toyota HiLux ute – is due for a major makeover in 2025, according to confidential plans uncovered by Drive.
EXCLUSIVE
The next-generation Toyota HiLux is due in Australian showrooms before the end of 2025 – pending any delays – Drive has learned, after unearthing confidential production plans.
Secret forecasts seen by Drive indicate the first examples of the next Toyota HiLux – the successor to Australia’s top-selling new vehicle for the past seven years in a row – is expected to start rolling off the production line before the end of 2025.
It is understood the new Toyota HiLux is due to be unveiled in the first half of 2025, ahead of arrivals in Toyota Australia showrooms in the second half of the year. However, this timing is subject to change due to any unforeseen delays.
It would mean the Toyota HiLux in showrooms today (launched 2015) would be the oldest vehicle in its class – excluding the 38-year-old Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series – by the time it is replaced.
The 2025 timing – and the age of the vehicle in showrooms today – goes some way to explaining why Toyota has invested in significant engineering upgrades to the current HiLux, including on the flagship Rogue and GR Sport editions.
By the time it reaches the end of the line, the current-generation Toyota HiLux will be three years older than the next newest vehicle in the class, the SsangYong Musso, launched in late 2018.
The current Toyota HiLux has come under pressure from a wave of overhauled competitors in recent years – the new Isuzu D-Max and Mazda BT-50 in 2020, GWM Ute in 2021, Ford Ranger in 2022, and Volkswagen Amarok this April (2023).
The all-new Toyota HiLux is due about nine months after the next-generation Nissan Navara and LDV T60 (late 2024 or early 2025), and 18 months after the new Mitsubishi Triton (expected early 2024).
Few technical details are known about the next Toyota HiLux – including whether it will have the option of turbo-diesel V6 power – as the Japanese car giant is notoriously secretive when it comes to future model plans, and the vehicle is still nearly years from showrooms.
However, the next Toyota HiLux is expected to be based on all-new underpinnings – a version of the TNGA-F chassis that forms the basis of the new Toyota Tundra pick-up, Toyota Tacoma pick-up, and the LandCruiser 300 Series 4WD.
The move to an all-new platform follows significant engineering upgrades to the current Toyota HiLux, such as longer axles (for a wider and broader footprint), rear disc brakes, and outboard rear shock absorbers to flagship Rogue and GR Sport models.
It is unusual for car makers to invest heavily in an existing model when it is approaching the end of its life cycle – with less time to recoup the investment.
However, the latest round of changes were designed to keep the HiLux fresh against newer competition – particularly as this model approaches the final months of its life next year and in early 2025.
The move to a new platform would see the new Toyota HiLux share its underpinnings with its US counterpart, the Toyota Tacoma, for the first time in two decades.
The Tacoma and HiLux parted ways in the mid-2000s, which saw the Tacoma become a larger vehicle better suited to North American tastes, and more closely related to the larger and more expensive Toyota Prado 4WD.
The move to twin the new Toyota HiLux and Tacoma – with similar underpinnings but, most likely, different bodies – could open the door to hybrid and electric power, as reports out of the US claim the next Tacoma is due to offer both technologies.
Toyota has already announced plans to introduce electrified power across nearly all models – including the HiLux – by the end of the decade, but it is unclear if hybrid, electric, or hydrogen technology would be chosen for the HiLux.
The Japanese car giant has pioneered modern hybrid power over the past two decades – and executives have continued to maintain their belief in the technology as a credible solution for buyers not ready for full electric power.
However, Toyota has revealed an electric HiLux concept in Thailand – and is working on hydrogen fuel cell prototypes in the UK – so it has shown interest in other power sources for the ute.
When asked which of the three types of electrified power – electric, hybrid or hydrogen – is most likely to come to the HiLux first, Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley told media this week: “We are considering all of those technologies for HiLux.
“Obviously hybrid is the easy solution for us, because we’re already doing it on other cars, but we don’t discount other technologies that may be more suitable for that car.”
While the Tacoma is expected to adopt hybrid technology with a 2.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine, it is unclear if the HiLux would pair a hybrid system with diesel fuel – which remains the overwhelming preference of buyers in Australia.
It remains to be seen if Toyota will answer the call for more power – and create a rival for the Ford Ranger turbo-diesel V6 and Ranger Raptor twin-turbo petrol V6 utes – with the option of a turbocharged six-cylinder petrol or diesel engine.
The most powerful iteration of the current HiLux – the GR Sport sold in Australia and South Africa – extracts 165kW/550Nm out of the familiar 2.8-litre turbo four-cylinder diesel engine, down on the 184kW/600Nm of the Ford Ranger’s 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6.
Previously, V6 power was available in the current Toyota HiLux in Australia – but in the form of a 4.0-litre non-turbo petrol engine with 175kW/375Nm, which was axed in 2017 after accounting for one per cent of sales.
In the previous generation Toyota HiLux, a V6 engine was briefly available with a supercharger in the high-performance TRD HiLux, which quoted outputs of 225kW and 453Nm.
Meantime, the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series is available with a choice of 227kW/700Nm 3.3-litre twin-turbo diesel V6 or, in overseas markets, 305kW/650Nm 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 engines.
Plans for a high-performance, new-generation Toyota GR HiLux to follow the current-generation HiLux GR Sport due in showrooms this year – and rival the new twin-turbo V6 petrol Ford Ranger Raptor – are also unclear.
The current Toyota HiLux also trails the Ford Ranger in technology – so the next model may adopt the new-generation infotainment software and twin widescreen displays seen in Toyota’s latest family SUVs, including the Corolla Cross and updated Kluger.
As previously reported by Drive, Toyota’s Australian design studio is expected to play a role in shaping the styling of the next HiLux – after it was instrumental in the facelifted HiLux on sale today, which was introduced in 2020.
“We work as part of the region, and a regional design resource for Toyota globally,” chief designer for Toyota’s design studio in Australia, Nic Hogios, told Drive at a media event in Melbourne late last year.
“We’ve done a lot of updates to HiLux since the major model change with the Rogue model, the Rugged X and the [2020] facelift. The current model you see today had a lot of input from us.”
“There are lots of projects that we’re working on for the future – probably two years ahead at this stage,” said Mr Hogios.
While Toyota Australia can contribute to the design of future models – and conduct testing on local soil – most engineering work is completed overseas.
That is unlike Ford in Melbourne, which served as the home base for the design, engineering and testing of the latest Ford Ranger ute and Ford Everest SUV.
“Working with the technical centre in Thailand, that’s where the engineering’s done and we’re a styling resource for them,” Mr Hogios told Drive.
When asked if Toyota Australia has the capacity to lead the development of a key global model like Ford, Mr Hogios – a former Ford designer – told Drive: “It’s different. [Ford] have a huge [research and development] centre, whereas we’re more linked in to the regional network, so it wouldn’t be all done from one location.
“Post COVID, it’s been really good that we’ve gotten used to location-free development. So we can style things here and engineering can be done in another part of the world, whether it be Thailand, India, Japan or wherever it might be.
“Toyota is just set up a bit differently in a very efficient way, where you can plug in resources from around the world and we have common standards, and a common design philosophy. So you’d never see [a Ford-like] operation style here.”
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