Toyota made waves when it announced a major electrification initiative earlier this month, a move that came as a surprise to most since the Japanese automaker was previously hesitant to commit to EVs. Toyota announced that it plans on rolling out a grand total of 30 battery EV models by 2030, at which point it expects to sell around 3.5 million EVs per year following a $2 trillion yen investment. But this announcement wasn’t just some normal presser – the automaker also brought out 15 concepts to show off, including a Toyota pickup EV concept that looks, well, somewhat familiar.
While this Toyota pickup EV concept looks essentially like an electrified version of the existing Tacoma, the front grille sports the same sort of pattern that’s present on the 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning. More specifically, it looks very similar to the Lariat-trimmed LIghting, which is the first thing that came to mind when we saw photos of this concept.
This isn’t terribly surprising given the fact that a lot of people aren’t fans of the grille-less look present on many modern-day EVs. Ford went to the trouble of making a front “grille” for all of its F-150 Lightning trims, and in our opinion at least, this looks far better than a smooth front end with no sort of grille present. The same goes for Toyota’s EV pickup concept, which retains somewhat of an ICE look in spite of its electrified powertrain.
In the meantime, Toyota just revealed the very first EV in its soon-to-be sprawling lineup – the bZ4X, which is a crossover that will compete directly with the Ford Mustang Mach-E. Its concepts span the entire spectrum of the automotive world, however, and include some off-road-focused crossovers/SUVs and trucks, a bZ-badged compact EV crossover, an Aygo X-inspired urban crossover, a mid-sized sedan, a full-size SUV, and a Lexus LFA-inspired supercar.
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Comments
The Toyota EV looks better than the Ugly 22 Tundra that they can’t get to market
Agree with Roy. And all these concepts they showed seem a long way off as well, these look like completely non-functional design exercises. Loooong way to go before production. Probably minimum of 5 years. Surprisingly, after being one of the pioneers in hybrids, Toyota is picking up the rear on battery electric. GM, Ford, Nissan, VW all way ahead.
Toyota offered one of the very first EV’s in the US and currently sold 27K in the US compared to Fords 9K. Ford sold 200K reservations with the Lightning even though its expected capacity in 2022 will be <15K units and no meaningful increase until 2024. Rivian and GM seem to be in the best spot for producing a meaningful number of EV trucks in 2022/23
Just a heads up the RAV4 EV was a joint venture with tesla, and you should include the focus EV count in. That venture with Tesla could explain why they cannot reproduce or grow the platform.
Awfully partisan, so why comment on it if not able to be objective? That’s the next Tacoma, which was designed until 1 year ago and design details were set in stone 7 months ago.
They didn’t copy Ford, as the basic design was developed before the Lightning debuted in May.
This is just a what-if-EV version of that 2024 ICE.