Long before Ford launched the popular Maverick compact pickup truck in 2021, the advanced product strategy team at Toyota were planning a small truck of their own to slot below the bestselling Toyota Tacoma.
Toyota has been here before—the predecessors to the modern Tacoma were truly compact, cheap trucks, as seen above and below—and the paperwork is still all there. Toyota has spent so many years studying the smaller truck that Cooper Ericksen, head of planning and strategy for Toyota Motor North America, jokes that he needs a bumper sticker for his Tundra that says “compact pickup or bust.”
Toyota Is Building It
The good news: a small truck will happen. “Decisions have been made. The question is when we can slot it in. It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ at this point,” Ericksen tells MotorTrend. We’ve studied it a lot. We’re dedicated to it. We’re going to figure out how to make it work.”
Progress has been made. The would-be truck’s platform and powertrain are pretty much locked in. It will be unibody construction, using TNGA bits, which underpin virtually all Toyotas, and can use Toyota’s hybrid powertrain system. It will be a true Toyota truck, akin to the larger, body-on-frame Tacoma mid-sizer and the full-size Toyota Tundra.
Toyota’s data shows it could sell 100,000 to 150,000 compact trucks a year in the U.S. alone to address the appetite for a more affordable entry-level truck.
The bad news: customers have to wait a bit longer. Toyota’s engineering resources are stretched to the max right now with 24 new or updated models coming out and a multi-powertrain strategy. With most new models being offered as hybrids, plug-in hybrids, an increasing number of battery electric, and the continued commitment to fuel cell vehicles, each nameplate is akin to engineering multiple new models, Ericksen said,
“Because of all of the need now to completely level up our EV portfolio and at the same time we are developing fifth and sixth generation hybrid systems, it’s difficult to find the engineering resources to dedicate to a project like a compact pickup truck,” Ericksen says.
“So bottom line is yes, we have been doing a ton of studying and we’re very positive that we have a path forward. It’s just trying to figure out, from a timing standpoint, when to slide it in.” Product planners are looking at their various projects to find an opening. “We’re trying to figure out how we can get it done.”
It must be done right and be a true Toyota truck. “When you are late you have the benefit to see what works and what doesn’t in the marketplace. I think we’ve been able to look at the various competitors,” Ericksen says. They have learned from other manufacturers what works and what does not.
“If we do this, it is going to be a Toyota truck. It needs to have certain capabilities and attributes and functionality. It needs to be a workhorse.”
But it also must be affordable. “Affordability is one of the biggest headwinds the industry faces,” Ericksen says. “Full-size trucks and midsize trucks have really gotten expensive.” There are buyers who don’t need Rubicon off-road capability that comes with tradeoffs: Trucks that are heavier and less fuel efficient, making them more expensive overall. (See: the Tacoma TRD Pro, pictured below, which starts at more than $60,000!) A reasonable compromise: SUV-like capability in a truck that is lighter, with a hybrid powertrain for great fuel economy, and a decent bed size to meet the needs of most consumers in a truck that costs less.
… But It’s At Least a Year Away
We won’t see a prototype or concept this year and next year might be too soon, as well, Ericksen says. “My hope is that you will see it very soon but there are a lot of moving pieces.”
There is no timeline for a final decision on a compact pickup right now because there is so much focus on what Toyota is building right now, says David Christ, general manager of the Toyota Division. With so much upheaval in the auto industry that is transitioning to electric vehicles and grappling with tariffs, regulations and uncertainty, annual plans completed before tariffs were announced have to be revisited and updated.
The timeline may sound long, but it is not unusual in this segment. While Ford got the Maverick to market quickly, Hyundai had a longer gestation period for the Santa Cruz, and Stellantis wins the prize for long-term promises yet to be kept after at least a decade of trying to figure out how to offer a successor to the midsize Dodge Dakota. That project, it seems, is ongoing.