While Toyota has a number of utes and pickups on sale globally, it currently doesn’t have a competitor in the US car-based segment.
In the US, the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz are sold as softer – but still capable – alternatives to the likes of the Ford Ranger and Toyota Tacoma.
The Maverick shares its underpinnings with the Escape SUV, while the Santa Cruz is based on the Santa Fe SUV.
They compete against only each other, and last year the Maverick notched up 131,142 sales in the US, well above that of its larger Ranger stablemate which achieved just over 50,000 sales.
When asked whether Toyota would be interested in joining the compact pickup segment, Toyota USA’s chief operating officer Mark Templin told The Japan Times, “we’re looking at it”.
Separately, Toyota Motor North America’s senior vice president of product, Cooper Ericksen, said “we could really do well in that segment, so we’re trying to do it”.
“It’s a matter of timing,” the executive added.
Should Toyota make a Maverick and Santa Cruz rival, it would likely be based on the RAV4, given the SUV’s additional ride height and recent launch of a new generation.
Given the hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains on offer in the RAV4, the small Toyota pickup would be able to compete head-to-head with the Maverick, which is available as a hybrid, unlike the petrol-only Santa Cruz.
It’s not the first time Toyota has been linked to building a small monocoque ute, with Motor1 Argentina last year reporting the brand’s Brazilian dealers were told about an upcoming compact pickup, due in 2027.
Set to be made for the Latin American market, the publication reported the ute would be based on the TNGA platform of the Corolla, however with power coming from the RAV4’s 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine and hybrid system.
Motor1 Argentina also claimed the ute would be based on the design of the EPU concept, an electric pickup measuring 5070mm long, 1910mm wide and 1710mm tall, right in the wheelhouse of the Maverick and Santa Cruz.
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