2024 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter
Toyota
NEW YORK — Toyota Motor is evaluating an expansion of its U.S. truck lineup that might include all-electric or plug-in hybrid electric versions of its Tacoma and Tundra pickups.
Jack Hollis, executive vp of Toyota Motor North America, said the Japanese automaker is assessing its options to find out what makes essentially the most sense based on expected customer demand and tightening federal emissions and fuel economy regulations.
“I do think there’s room to grow our entire truck footprint. Whether it’s Tundra, Tacoma or something else along with the lineup,” Hollis told CNBC on Tuesday through the Latest York Auto Forum conference. “Whether that is a compact or something else, I feel it is important for us to proceed to see what the purchasers are on the lookout for.”
Toyota has previously discussed a broad lineup of battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, including a midsize pickup model just like the segment-leading Tacoma. The newest conversations have introduced the potential for plug-in hybrid vehicles, or PHEVs.
Toyota earlier this yr said it could invest $1.3 billion in a Kentucky plant to provide a recent all-electric, three-row SUV for the U.S. market. The automaker’s Thailand president this week confirmed Toyota will produce a BEV of its small Hilux pickup for global markets, in line with Reuters.
A Pearl White Toyota Hilux 2.8 D-4D.
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Hollis said the electrical Hilux is “very cool.” He declined to take a position whether Toyota could bring that vehicle to the U.S.
He confirmed, nonetheless, that the corporate is “looking into each” BEV and PHEV versions of the Tacoma and full-size Tundra. The Tundra was last redesigned for the 2022 model yr, followed by Tacoma last yr.
“We’re within the evaluation of each. There are the reason why a BEV can work and there is a reason why PHEV can work,” he said, in posing the query, “What’s the very best mixture of those based upon each of those two trucks and even for 4Runner or Sequoia [SUVs]?”
There are currently five all-electric pickup trucks on sale within the U.S., but they continue to be priced more in order luxury vehicles than mass-market models. Their prices range from $50,000 to simply greater than $100,000, and sales of the vehicles have largely slowed after automakers rushed all-electric pickups to market.
There are usually not any plug-in hybrid electric pickups currently on sale within the U.S. Stellantis’ Ram brand is predicted to release an “extended-range” plug-in vehicle with an electrical generator powering an engine later this yr.
Toyota is one in all several automakers reassessing its product portfolio amid slower-than-excepted adoption of EVs, and in light of the Biden administration’s revised emissions rules that aim to higher take into consideration hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
José Muñoz, Hyundai president and global chief operating officer, told CNBC on Wednesday the corporate is reevaluating its plans to exclusively produce all-electric vehicles at a recent plant under construction in Georgia.
“The whole lot is on the table,” Muñoz said. “We’ll adjust to the market demand and, in the meanwhile, we’re on the right track for what the regulators are requesting.”
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