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Toyota is reportedly exploring a new sub-HiLux ute built on the same TNGA underpinnings as the top-selling RAV4 Hybrid and which would rival models like the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz.
TNGA is the platform that underpins the brand's passenger-biased vehicle range, including the Yaris and Corolla and the C-HR and RAV4 – but, crucially, not the HiLux, which rocks a ladder-frame setup.
Which is exactly what has inspired this artists impression - done by the talented Kleber Silva - which imagines the new model taking its styling cues not from the HiLux, but from the massively popular RAV4.
But would an urban-focused baby HiLux work? Toyota's rivals seem to think so, with the Hyundai Santa Cruz and Ford Maverick both making waves in the USA.
“One of the spaces we're looking at—that won't be short-term—is where the compact pick-up truck is going. You have Santa Cruz and Maverick on the market, and it will be interesting to see [VW's] Scout,” Toyota Motor North America executive vice-president of sales Bob Carter told MotorTrend.
“Today, we have the market really well covered with Tacoma, but that [a compact pick-up] could be a possibility and something we continue to look at.”
While the brand hasn't ruled out the possibility of a true ladder-frame mini-workhorse, the company's TNGA platform is a more likely candidate, Toyota Motor North America group vice-president of product planning and strategy Cooper Ericksen told MotorTrend
“If there's a customer that needs a rugged, smaller body-on-frame vehicle, we can consider that, but if it's more for urban use and less extreme off-road, then it would make more sense to use the TNGA unibody platform,” he said.
America, though, is a long way from Australia – and Australia's ute tastes. So would a mini-HiLux work Down Under? Tell us in the comments below.
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