Toyota Just Teased This All-Electric Hilux Pickup Truck
Despite its storied absence from the American marketplace, the Toyota Hilux pickup truck is a global icon. Inexpensive, reliable, legendarily tough, and long-lasting, the Hilux consistently ranks among the best-selling pickups worldwide (per Focus2Move), despite its absence from American pavement and the vast numbers of Ford F-Series bought by U.S. drivers.
In keeping with its all-purpose, relentlessly reliable appeal, rumors have swirled around the Hilux potentially getting an all-electric upgrade in the near future. The possibility was theoretically confirmed during a 2019 furor about fuel standards in Australia in which Toyota confirmed the Hilux, at the time Australia's most popular car, would have an electric version available within six years (via The Canberra Times).
Since then, news has been thin on the ground. Toyota has famously struggled to put EVs of any kind on the road and virtually nothing new has come out about the electric Hilux in particular. Until now. Toyota Thailand may have just offered a peek at the future of one of the world's most reliable brands.
Electric workhorse
In an effusive address to Toyota Motor Thailand on the occasion of its 60th anniversary, Toyota Motor Company president Akio Toyoda teased two new concepts for the Hilux. He was on friendly ground: per his speech, the double-cab Hilux Vigo is widely considered the national car of Thailand. While extolling Toyota's success in the country and long history of collaboration with Thai political and corporate initiatives, Toyoda gave Thailand and the world the first glimpse of the future of the Hilux brand.
After introducing the IMV 0, a brand new entry-level pickup for the Thai market, Toyoda finally confirmed all the rumors: an all-electric, battery-powered Hilux is indeed coming to market in the form of the Hilux Revo BEV. As yet, details are scarce. Toyoda established his namesake company's commitment to multiple avenues of carbon neutrality, confirming that Toyota would continue to make hybrids, plug-ins, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alongside battery-powered EVs.
We don't yet have a date for the electric Hilux because, per Toyoda, Toyota is focused on getting as many people into high-quality, sustainably designed cars as possible. That said, this is at least official confirmation. An all-electric Toyota Hilux is coming. It's got a brand name and everything. Will it be enough to finally break the world's favorite pickup into the American market? Only time will tell.