Remember the Toyota e-Palette? It first made rounds at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where it was used to shuttle athletes around the Olympic Village. It then made headlines for its intriguing potential as a fully electric vehicle for public transportation.
Cut to four years later, Toyota launched an updated version of the e-Palette earlier this week and opened orders to the Japanese market. Priced at ¥29 million (around P11.2 million), the 2026 e-Palette is actually smaller than its previous form, but is advertised with updated technology and a much more versatile platform.
Although at its core, it is still a robust people carrier, and multiple units will be deployed to the Toyota Woven City for public transportation.
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Around the futuristic metropolis, the e-Palette is also expected to be used as a food truck and as emergency power generators thanks to its Vehicle-2-Load capabilities. Versatile, right?
Toyota even envisions people gathering inside an e-Palette to catch a sports event. Not to use e-Palette as a means to get to a stadium or an arena, but to actually watch the game inside the vehicle on its built-in screens.
That must mean it’s decently spacious inside the e-Palette, right? Well, sort of. As we mentioned, it is smaller than the previous minibus, coming in at 4,950mm long, 2,080mm wide, and 2,650mm tall. That makes it about 300mm shorter than the old e-Palette, or almost as long as a Land Cruiser Prado, but significantly taller and wider.
The actual cabin can fit about 17 passengers with four fixed seats, room for 12 standing adults, and space for a driver. Equipped with a power ramp, the interior space should also have more than enough room for those in wheelchairs.
The e-Palette is equipped with Level 2 automated driving software, featuring updated iterations of an Automated Driving Kit and a Vehicle Control Interface that are supported by onboard camera and LiDAR systems. Toyota aims to have the e-Palette at level four by 2027, to give riders a more seamless commute.
And now, anyone in Japan can purchase an e-Palette, but they will need to wait for some time as these are made to order. After paying the P11.2 million price, they’ll be getting a fully electric minibus with a single AC synchronous motor, powered by a 72.82kWh battery. That setup is capable of driving up to 250km with a top speed of 80kph. In terms of power, it outputs about 201hp and 266Nm of torque.
With how versatile the e-Palette claims to be, it might make a lot of sense for those interested in kei cars, or even something like the Tamaraw. Its exact payload figure is unclear, but if it can carry 17 adults, it probably has some serious capacity. However, it has a steep asking price for a relatively small minibus—perhaps if this goes into full production, prices could get to a more accessible point.
But in the meantime, let us know what you think about the e-Palette in the comments. Would it make for a nifty bus on the EDSA Carousel?
More photos of the 2026 Toyota e-Palette:
