I'm getting sick of waiting for this thing. I hope it's the killer that rumors are making it out to be, because the anticipation grows almost every month, it seems.
I could say so many things about the state of Toyota in the last few years, but I'll keep that to myself. In the immediate context, Toyota needs to be
very careful to listen to and meet the needs of North American customers and not alienate them. For body-on-frame trucks and SUVs, in North America people love powerful engines, and especially engines with lots of torque. The American competition in the last few years has gone into overdrive offering so many large engines. Ford, GM, Dodge, Jeep all have a variety of very powerful V8s available, especially in many of their off-road models. FCA has done a tremendous job offering V8s almost everywhere. They've taken a financial penalty due to CAFE or EPA rules I've heard, but if that's what it takes to satisfy the wants and needs of North American customers at this time, so be it. I'm not advocating Toyota do exactly this, but Toyota needs to just be very aware. The Wrangler has a huge V8 available, the Ram TRX is an extreme off-road machine, then you have the extremely competitive Bronco (with evidence that Ford will unveil even more extreme Bronco variants including possibly turbo V6 or V8 engines) and you have the new Ford Raptor which will also get even more extreme with the future Raptor R variant. So my question to Toyota, where are you in terms of competing? Where are the big, strong engines for your body-on-frame trucks and SUVs?
To keep this short, whatever engine and transmission combinations the new Tundra, Sequoia, 4Runner, Tacoma, etc. will have...they need be engines with lots of torque paired with responsive transmissions. Also the pedal and throttle response needs to be great, and not dull or laggy. Aside from being fast and powerful, the new generation vehicles need to also
feel fast and powerful. The current Tacoma feels slow, and the current 4Runner
is slow.
In Covid times here, Toyota could have easily virtually premiered the Tundra by now. What's the hold up? Even if the Tundra only reaches showrooms in December or early next year, doesn't matter, just premiere it now already. It's even more mind-boggling considering the exterior has already leaked out.
The last vehicle that was this hyped up after a long delay was the fifth gen LS, so I am hoping the Tundra comes out of the gate as a stronger execution after some lessons learned with other TNGA rollouts.
For example, the rumors of a Tundra hybrid have been swirling for 5-7 years now... and yet Ford beat them to it, and with very strong specs. Also, the EcoBoost engines aren't perfect, but at this point, Ford has the "turbo V6" thing nailed down pretty well, whereas the V35A-FTS has only been out for 3 years, and it's been "meh" in the LS.
A lot of things about the Tundra and LS are very different, but a lot of things are also very similar. If the Tundra rolls out with some sort of "Oh we did all the things and we did them our way (in a vacuum)," thinking like they did with the LS, it will be a problem. I am hoping Toyota gets it right - and more.
On the consumer side, a heavy-duty hybrid system from Toyota has been rumored for over 10 years now. On the commercial Hino side, Toyota has had a heavy-duty hybrid system available for
over 20 years now.
www.motor1.com
tfltruck.com
