- Toyota RAV4 engineer says a RAV4-based pickup could be ‘interesting.’
- The automaker has nothing ‘official’ deliberate.
- Toyota admits there’s a marketplace for a smaller truck.
Regardless of the Ford Maverick’s monumental gross sales success, few automakers appear to be in a rush to construct a competitor. Toyota has not less than proven some curiosity in making a Maverick rival, with a brand new interview suggesting that the corporate is extra focused on ever than bringing a small truck to market.
Talking with Australian outlet Drive, the Toyota RAV4’s chief engineer Yoshinori Futonagane stated the corporate has mentioned constructing a pickup primarily based on the corporate’s best-selling crossover. That stated, Futonagane-san confirmed that the corporate has “no official plans” to construct such a automobile. He acknowledged:
‘The marketplace for a monocoque pickup truck is kind of interesting. Deep in our coronary heart of hearts, all of us assume, ‘wouldn’t that be enjoyable?”
Toyota Small Pickup Truck Rendering By Motor1
Picture by: Theophilus Chin | Motor1
Small Truck Demand?
Whereas this interview was carried out in Australia, a market identified for liking pickup vehicles (or utes as they name them), it’s far smaller than the American truck market. Australia’s bestselling automobile in 2025 was the Ford Ranger with simply 56,555 models. By comparability, the Ford Collection, the bestselling automobile within the US, moved 828,832 models. Even Australia’s high vendor, the Ranger, had increased gross sales within the US with 70,960 models.
As for the smaller Maverick, it outsold the bigger Ranger because of its inexpensive price ticket, nimble measurement, and out there hybrid powertrain. Ford bought 155,051 models in 2025, far outmatching the one different automobile in its phase, the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which moved 25,499 models. Hyundai has since introduced it would discontinue the Santa Cruz to construct a bigger, body-on-frame truck that competes with the Ranger.
Toyota is aware of there’s demand for one more truck just like the Maverick, and the RAV4‘s frugal hybrid powertrain and intelligent inside would offer a stellar start line for a competitor. Nevertheless, Toyota additionally is aware of it should be cautious to not eat into the Tacoma, the bestselling midsize truck with 274,638 models bought in 2025.
Tacoma has dominated the midsize phase, simply because the Ford F-Collection has managed the full-size market. Although Toyota is unlikely to lose its high spot, for the reason that Chevrolet Colorado completed a distant second in gross sales final 12 months with 107,867 models, the Japanese automaker could not need to cannibalize one among its most profitable fashions, even when it is solely a slight quantity.
Motor1’s Take: A Maverick rival from Toyota is lengthy overdue, and with the present outlook on gasoline costs, the Japanese automaker would have an instantaneous hit if it may launch the truck this 12 months. We do not know what such a truck might be known as—rumors counsel it may use the Hilux or Stout names—however we imagine the market will embrace it it doesn’t matter what.
