Right now, the Tacoma is Toyota’s smallest U.S.-market truck, but that may still change as small trucks gain steam.
As Ford and Hyundai continue to duke it out over small truck buyers, Toyota is still keen to get into the game, according to recent interviews reported by Bloomberg.
Mark Templin, Toyota’s chief operating officer for North America, told reporters “we’re looking at it” in a recent interview, but declined to give details on exactly what the automaker has in mind. Granted, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard such rumors. Just over a year ago, we noted that the tiny Stout could be the next Toyota truck we’d see in the U.S. — an antidote to the eye-wateringly expensive price tags we’re seeing even on midsize trucks like the Tacoma, where top-end models could set you back around $70,000. And that story gets even worse if you look at the larger, half-ton Tundra.
There’s certainly a hunger there for smaller, less expensive trucks. Huge hype emerged around the electric Telo MT1 as well as Slate Auto’s “$20,000” truck, each of which promise an affordable option that punches well above their weight class. The Ford Maverick, too, currently offers a starting MSRP just under $30,000, and that’s for a hybrid truck that promises EPA figures in excess of 40 mpg in city driving.
So, what could a small Toyota truck look like for the American market, and when could we see it? There are a couple different routes the company could take here, including a direct Maverick and Santa Cruz competitor with a hybrid powertrain (akin to Toyota’s recent moves with the rest of its model portfolio), or something along the lines of the electric EPU Concept it revealed in late 2023. Something completely different could be in the works, and whatever is in development seems to be pretty tightly under wraps, at least for now.
We’ve gotten a thorough revamp of Toyota’s core models in the past few years, however, from the Camry sedan to virtually every truck and SUV the automaker builds. On that basis, there’s no time like now to roll out something entirely new, and the general consensus seems to be that we’ll see something within the next 18 months or so — most likely a model pitched for calendar year 2027.
