Why Maverick success will shape 2027 Toyota Stout
The story of a Toyota unibody bakkie is gaining strength. Regular readers will recall our previous post on the matter back in February. Without much to go on, we ran the story around an edgy looking vehicle bearing elements of one of Toyota’s more recent EV models. Much as the new Tacoma, and supposedly the next Hilux took their looks from a one-tonner shown that day.
The Toyota ’Stout’ story has since evolved, to now allow a slightly different take on how this apparent newcomer may look. The drawings on this page now depict that. But first a refresher. Back in February, Auto speculated a that Toyota has allegedly trademarked the Stout name in of all places, Argentina. To finally herald the return to the ‘half ton’ pickup market 50 years anon. All of which is most interesting from a South African point of view.
Such a Toyota Stout would target among others, Hyundai’s US car-based Santa Cruz, a Brazil’s new Ram Rampage and its Fiat Toro twin, an imminent Volkswagen unibody pick-up, and as it now most significantly appears, Ford’s greatly successful US market sub-Ranger Maverick. From a South African point of view, the recent exit of Nissan’s NP200 from the market after the disappearance of Ford Bantam, the Opel Ute and the rest now means that there are no ‘half-tonner’ or smaller unibody bakkies left in a market that once sold 3,000 units a month.
Toyota recently trademarked the Stout name
Confused? So are we. It was into this realm that evidence of a future compact Toyota bakkie emerged from that South American patent office. “There’s space for a small Toyota pickup truck.” Toyota North America, boss Jack Hollis explained last year. Hollis was behind the 2008 Detroit Toyota A-Bat hybrid pickup concept. Which idea Hyundai subsequently picked up, and ran with, in Santa Cruz.
“We’re actively looking into a small pick-up below the Tacoma,” Toyota USA planning colleague Cooper Ericksen added. “Does it have a place in the market, and how big will a SUV with a load bed get? “I don’t know, but the more Mavericks and Santa Cruz Ford and Hyundai sell, the more we get to know about those customers. “It’s an area we should play in.”
“If it’s more for urban use and less extreme off-road, then it’d make more sense to use the TNGA unibody platform,” Ericksen pointed out, fuelling speculation about a RAV4 based pickup. Auto pointed out in February that the RAV4 is only built in Japan and China. And that Toyota’s global Corolla Cross TNGA GA-C platform however seems a far more logical solution for a bakkie that the whole world already seems to want.
Small bakkie speculation boiled up again
Now either someone has been paying attention to Auto’s speculation, or there is stronger evidence around this out of Toyota. Leading motoring journal Automotive News has now speculated precisely what Auto said in January, that a "Corolla-based pickup remains a possibility, but its appearance is a work in progress to go on sale no sooner than 2027.
As noted in Auto’s February story, the Corolla Cross is already quite literally built all across the globe. Its produced internationally in plants from Japan to Thailand and Taiwan, to Malaysia. Add two more in China, and one each in Brazil, the US, and South Africa. Never mind, the GA-C is available in all-wheel drive. And it’s already built as a hybrid too.
That of course opens up the possibility of South African production alongside Hilux, Fortuner, and Corolla Cross, et al for consumption right across Africa, out of Prospection. The Durban plant is of course already churning TNGA GA-C chassis dime a dozen. A fair start for a new unitary body bakkie intended to pick up the slack below King Hilux.
Will mini-me Stout share Next Hilux cues?
Like Maverick, Santa Cruz, Ramage and Toro, a TNGA GA-C based bakkie would be a little larger than the half tonners we have come to know. Big enough for a double cab. And who knows, even a clever extendable cab, made possible by its monocoque construction. It’d come in petrol and hybrid, with top models even offering all-wheel drive.
This latest speculation has of course seen to a fresh rash of rushed small Toyota pickup renders rushing like a plague across the internet. That Corolla-based Stout bakkie will now more likely be more of an antidote to the hugely successful Ford Maverick. Which prompts Auto’s future car sleuth artist to believe that like Maverick is something of a mini-me Ranger or F-150, why would Toyota play Stout any different?
Which leads to these Auto exclusive sketches of a Corolla Cross based bakkie that takes its looks from next Hilux, which is apparently the same vehicle as the all-new Tacoma (above). A Corolla-based mini-me Hilux for 2027? We’d put our money on it looking something like the rest of the doodles on this page! Time will tell! – Michele Lupini
Exclusive Auto Renderings: Michele Lupini
