Could the all-new Toyota Stout be the Brumby breakthrough you've been waiting for? A new baby HiLux-based Brumby is high on Subaru's wish list

Subaru Australia will be first in the queue for a Toyota Stout-based Brumby, with the brand's Australian executives suggesting a reincarnation of the iconic workhorse is at the top of its wish list.

Toyota and Subaru are long-time collaborators, first with the performance-focused 86 and BRZ twins, and more recently with the all-electric bZ4X and Solterra.

And it's not just models, but technology, too, with Subaru likely leaning on Toyota's hybrid know-how to power its next generation of hybrid vehicles, starting with the Forester.

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That part of the partnership actually began in 2018, when the Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid debuted with Toyota's hybrid tech on board.

But what would really get us excited is if that partnership extended to the incoming Toyota Stout, the brand's sub-HiLux pickup, which is increasingly likely to arrive as a hybrid that would rival models like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz.

And we're not the only ones excited, with Subaru in Australia putting a new Toyota-shared Brumby high on its wish list.

"It would be foolish if it wasn't on the wish list," says Subaru Australia Managing Director, Blair Read.

"It's not available, but of course I'd be asking for it. Is it on the wish list? Absolutely."

Toyota's version, at least, has begun taking shape, with the brand promising it will be tough and cheap.

Better still, we've moved well beyond rumours, with Toyota's international executives suggesting the new model could launch as early as 2025.

The latest details come from Toyota in South Africa (a ute-loving market similar to our own), where the company's executives have suggested the new model will "take the market by storm", while also making some bold promises about just how capable the vehicle - expected to be called the Stout - will be.

“It won’t be a half-ton bakkie (ute),” Toyota South Africa senior vice president for sales and marketing, Leon Theron, told local publication IOL.

“We believe it will take the market by storm and are still doing a lot of development around it.”

In fact, the South African executives even dropped the launch window.

"Something that’s in the same space but more affordable than the Hilux that we’re looking at releasing around 2025 or 2026," Toyota South Africa's vice president of marketing and communications, Glenn Crompton, told IOL.

So it seems a new Toyota ute is coming, but will a Subaru Brumby follow it? For that you'll have to cross you fingers.