HiLux goes electric! Toyota reveals HiLux Revo BEV at anniversary celebration

Toyota has, somewhat unexpectedly, revealed a concept previewing an all-electric HiLux ute during a celebration ceremony for the 60th anniversary of Toyota Motor Thailand.

Presented with no technical details purely visually, and referred to only once by Toyota president Akio Toyoda as the "all-new HiLux Revo BEV concept", the electric ute is “designed to support carbon neutrality and a better environment for all”, Mr Toyoda said.

Despite being called all-new, the electric concept looks visually similar to the current-generation HiLux with an altered front end and closed-off grille.

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There was no reference to any likely timeline for production, nor any benchmarked specifications. In fact, Mr Toyoda moved on quite quickly after referring to the concept by name.

After presenting the HiLux Revo BEV, he went on to outline why the Toyota brand is slow to take up its development of fully electric vehicles.

“I am often criticized in the press because I won't declare that the automotive industry should commit 100 per cent to BEV. 

“I believe we need to be realistic about when society will be able to fully adopt battery electric vehicles and when our infrastructure can support them at scale.

“Because just like the fully autonomous cars that we were all supposed to be driving by now, I think BEVs are just going to take longer to become mainstream than the media would like us to believe. 

“And frankly, BEVs are not the only way to achieve the world's carbon neutrality goals. Personally, I would rather pursue every option, not just one,―options such as emission-free synthetic fuels and hydrogen.

“We must remember that carbon is the real enemy, not a particular powertrain and that we can't reach carbon neutrality on our own. It must be a group effort and include other industries beyond automotive.”