With a purpose to promote 11 million automobiles per 12 months there aren’t many automotive niches Toyota does not compete in, and a brand new mannequin spied in Brazil will plug a obvious gap within the Japanese model’s South American lineup.
Brazilian web site BlogAuto noticed this dual-cab prototype on a freeway in São Paulo, and it seems to be a unibody ute primarily based on the regionally made Corolla Cross small SUV.
As is frequent with car-based pickups, the brand new ute appears to be like to be larger than the donor automobile, with an extended wheelbase and distinctive rear doorways. The Corolla Cross has a size of 4.46m, so we anticipate the ute to be not less than 4.7m lengthy.
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In line with BlogAuto and different Brazilian sources there might be two drivetrains supplied, with lesser fashions that includes a 2.0-litre flex-fuel engine making round 129kW of energy and mated to a repeatedly variable computerized transmission (CVT) with 10 simulated gears. This powertrain appears to be taken straight from the Corolla Cross.
There’ll reportedly even be an E-4 hybrid drivetrain with a petroleum engine and electrical motor up entrance, and an unbiased electrical motor on the rear axle. For reference, the Brazil-made Corolla Cross hybrid fashions are front-wheel drive solely and include a 90kW 1.8-litre hybrid system.
The as-yet-unnamed ute is predicted to start manufacturing within the first quarter of 2027 at Toyota’s plant in Sorocaba within the state of São Paulo, the place it is going to share ground house with the carefully associated Corolla Cross.
When the brand new ute is unveiled, it will likely be the primary Toyota mannequin to make its world debut in Brazil. It‘s unclear if Toyota has plans to promote the brand new mannequin outdoors of Latin America.
Because of being produced in Brazil, it is going to keep away from steep import tariffs and revel in duty-free entry to the remainder of the Mercosur buying and selling bloc, permitting it to compete head-to-head with the equally sized Chevrolet Montana and Renault Duster Oroch, and probably the bigger 4.9m Fiat Toro and 5.0m Ram Rampage.
The South American fondness for utes started within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties with the likes of the Volkswagen Saveiro, Fiat Strada and Chevrolet Montana, which had been two-door utes primarily based on modern mild hatches, particularly the Gol, Palio and Corsa, respectively.
Within the 2010s automakers started abandoning the utes’ mild hatch roots in favour of bigger platforms and four-door layouts.
The Corolla Cross ute might not be the one unibody pickup being developed by Toyota, with Ted Ogawa, the corporate’s North American boss, lately indicating the automaker is investigating a RAV4-based ute to fill the house beneath the Tacoma.
Such a mannequin would tackle the Escape-based Ford Maverick within the US market, nevertheless it’s unclear if it will likely be authorized, when it may very well be launched, and the place it could be exported to.
