Industry whispers point to a new compact pick-up being developed by Toyota, and it may adopt a name not used for decades.
The Toyota Stout was one of the first Japanese utes to prove itself as a reliable and capable workhorse on Australian farms throughout the 1960s and 1970s – now it’s been revealed the badge could make a return.
While Toyota eventually replaced the Stout in Australia with the more modern HiLux, unearthed trademark filings could be a sign the model will make a return to the company’s line-up.
According to Argentinian website Autoweb, Toyota has registered the Stout name in the region, suggesting the Japanese car giant could be contemplating using the badge on a small ute – possibly to compete against the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz in North America.
The Toyota Stout could also offer an alternative to the many car-based utes also on sale in South America, like the Fiat Strada, Renault Duster Oroch, Volkswagen Saveiro, and Chevrolet Montana.
This digital rendering by artist Theottle (top) provides an idea of what a Stout ute could look like, with design inspiration taken from Toyota’s Compact Cruiser EV concept – which may itself eventually come to market as the LiteCruiser.
MORE: 2024 Toyota LiteCruiser: Electric concept wins design gong
The trademark filing is not the first piece of evidence of a compact pick-up from Toyota. In June 2022, Senior Vice President of Automotive Operations at Toyota North America, Jack Hollis, told Automotive News “there is space” in the brand’s line-up for a ute to sit below the (HiLux-sized) Tacoma.
It’s also not the first time Mr Hollis has pushed the idea of a small pick-up. He introduced the Toyota A-Bat hybrid ute concept at the 2008 Detroit motor show – which shares a similar silhouette to the more recent Hyundai Santa Cruz – and told Wards Intelligence in 2010 a small pick-up wasn’t off the table for Toyota’s now-defunct Scion sub-brand sold in the US and Canada.
In the same Automotive News interview, his colleague Cooper Ericksen, Group Vice President of Product Planning and Strategy, said their team was “actively looking into” a pick-up below the Tacoma.
“It’s undeniable that those products have a place in the market. And how big is that segment going to get? I don’t know, but it’s something that we need to be looking at and figuring out if it’s an area we should play in,” he said.
Mr Ericksen admitted to owning a single-cab 1982 Toyota HiLux – but said he regularly hits his head because of how small it is inside.
“We probably need something a little more spacious on the inside, more of an SUV-with-a-bed concept, so it’s really dialing in,” he said.
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“And the more [Mavericks] that Ford sells, frankly, the more [Santa Cruz pick-ups] that Hyundai sells, the more we’ll be able to get good research on who these customers are, why they want this vehicle, and we’ll see if that’s the space that we want to enter into.”
Mr Ericksen also gave some hints to US website Motor Trend around how Toyota is thinking about the construction of a potential new ute.
“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.
The comments sparked speculation the new Toyota pick-up will be based on the TNGA platform underpinning the RAV4, owing to the fact Ford based its Maverick ute on the same architecture as the Escape SUV, Focus small car and Bronco Sport, and the Hyundai Santa Cruz was developed from a Tucson.
Executive Vice President of Sales for Toyota North America, Bob Carter, also admitted in the same interview the company was considering a smaller ute.
“One of the spaces we’re looking at – that won’t be short-term – is where the compact pick-up truck is going,” Mr Carter told Motor Trend in June.
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“You have Santa Cruz and Maverick on the market, and it will be interesting to see [Volkswagen’s] Scout [electric brand, coming in 2026]. Today, we have the market really well covered with Tacoma, but [a compact pick-up] could be a possibility and something we continue to look at.”
Mr Carter also hinted at more information being made available at the company’s HQ Confidential Three media conference for US journalists in June 2023, adding “it will be worth the trip”.
While evidence of a compact ute from Toyota is mounting, there’s nothing to suggest Australia will be in line to receive such a model at this stage – unless, like the full-size pick-up rivalry of the Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra, Ford forces Toyota’s hand by bringing the Maverick to our shores.
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