The Toyota Stout revival isn’t happening anytime soon
Toyota dealers in the US are clamoring for a pickup truck to rival the likes of the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. According to Toyota Motor Group North America Vice President and General Manager David Crist, the answer is no, it won’t.
Image: Digimods Design on YouTube
Speaking to Automotive News, the official said: “We’re not announcing anything to traders. I won’t say yet because that might indicate it’s coming.” A little over a month ago, the aforementioned publication reported that Toyota would launch a modernized version of the Stout with underpinnings from the Corolla. From this gentleman’s answer, it is clear that Toyota is not entirely in agreement with this idea.
Why though? Is there a good reason to leave the Maverick and Santa Cruz alone in the highly lucrative U.S. pickup truck market? If you take a closer look at their sales reports, this is a bit of an exaggeration.
Maverick deliveries totaled 42,499 units in the first half of 2023, and Ford listed the Escape it’s based on at 64,839 units. Santa Cruz fared worse, recording 20,050 deliveries in the first half, down 10 percent from 18,203 in the first half of 2022.
Returning to 2022, full-year sales were 74,370 for the Maverick and 36,480 for the Santa Cruz. Given these numbers, a smart, conservative company like Toyota doesn’t intend to bet everything on black.
Toyota also knows it has a good alternative to the F-150 in the Tundra and the group’s best-selling midsize car in the Tacoma. Spending millions of dollars to convert a unibody sedan into a unibody truck—with no guarantee of breaking even—is risky in this day and age.
Photo: Toyota
The fact is that the Japanese automaker is focusing more on that Eve development at the present time. Toyota lags far behind the competition in many aspects of electric vehicles, hence the bZ4X’s poor delivery numbers.
Toyota stopped manufacturing the Stout in February 2000. In most countries where the Stout was offered, Toyota replaced it with the Hilux. In North America, the HiLux was known as the Toyota pickup until the Tacoma was introduced in 1995.
Whether the Japanese company is working in the background on a potential successor to Stout, only time will tell. According to Automotive News, the newcomer would have begun production in 2027 at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi. Employing 2,400 people there, they produce Corollas in 132,684 examples in 2022 alone.
If Stout returns to the TNGA-C platform in the Corolla, look forward to naturally aspirated I4 engines and hybrid options. All-wheel drive will also be on the table, most likely in the form of the Prius SUV-Like setting. The only pickup trucks on sale today that offer hybrid options are the Maverick, Tacoma, Tundra, and F-150.
The Maverick carries a starting price of $23,400 (excluding destination charge) or $24,900 for the model Front wheel drive– Hybrid only. The 2024 Tacoma hasn’t gone on sale, but we know the outgoing truck is available for configuration for $28,600. The Tundra is priced at $39,965 or $57,625 for the i-FORCE MAX twin-turbo V6 hybrid, while the Ford F-150 PowerBoost is currently priced at $43,375 for the XL SuperCrew with 2WD.
(Tags for translation)Toyota Stout
