Sales of the two newest small trucks in the US—the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz—continue to, er, pick up. It’s no surprise other carmakers now want to capitalize on the momentum and enter the segment.
Well, in the case of Toyota, it’s looking into re-entering the compact-pickup market. According to a report by MotorTrend, the Japanese automotive giant is now “looking at where the compact pickup truck is going.”
“Today, we have the market really well covered with Tacoma, but that [a compact pickup] could be a possibility and something we continue to look at,” said Toyota Motor North America (TMNA) executive vice president of sales Bob Carter in an interview with MotorTrend.
OTHER STORIES ON COMPACT PICKUPS:
How compact is the new Ford Maverick?
Ford Maverick vs. Hyundai Santa Cruz: What we know so far of these two compact pickups
Carter reportedly emphasized that if there would be a new model, it won’t be coming in 2023. If there’s anything in the pipeline, it’ll be out in 2024 or 2025. It could potentially be built on the Toyota New Global Architecture platform as well.
“If there’s a customer that needs a rugged, smaller body-on-frame vehicle, we can consider that, but if it’s more for urban use and less extreme off-road, then it would make more sense to use the TNGA unibody platform,” added TMNA group vice president of product planning and strategy Cooper Ericksen.
No confirmation and no specific details, yet this is still something to get excited about. What would you like to see in a compact pickup if Toyota were to actually make one?
