For Toyota to leap again into compact pickups, it could want its entry within the phase to be a web generator of CAFE and greenhouse fuel credit. That is partly as a result of the automaker’s body-on-frame lineup is barely midway by means of its first redesign in 14 years, with the Tundra occurring sale late final 12 months and the Sequoia set to look in dealerships this summer time, leaving its quantity chief, the Tacoma, on the sidelines till 2023 and the 4Runner SUV on deck in 2024. These long-in-the-tooth designs have weighed on Toyota’s CAFE averages as time handed and laws tightened.
Ericksen mentioned the inducement for automakers to spice up the footprint of their gentle vans is “sort of an odd scenario. It is not the most effective factor for the atmosphere, nevertheless it’s the most effective factor if your organization occurs to promote actually huge vans.” Nonetheless, he mentioned for Toyota to leap again into compact pickups, any entry must be larger than the small Toyota pickups from the 1980s or ’90s — together with his personal 1982 Toyota 4×4, with its very skinny doorways and single-row cabin so small he commonly hits his head.
“That is in all probability not what we want. We in all probability want one thing somewhat extra spacious on the within, extra of an SUV-with-a-bed idea, so it is actually dialing in,” Ericksen mentioned. “And the extra that Ford sells, frankly, the extra that Hyundai sells, the extra we’ll have the ability to get good analysis on who these clients are, why they need this automobile, and we’ll see if that is the house that we need to enter into.”
