Toyota Promises BEV Hilux Pickup Next Year

Toyota will have a battery-electric vehicle version of its hugely successful Hilux pickup truck in mass production by 2025.

That’s the claim of the president of the automaker's Thailand operations and follows on from the country’s government announcing that Isuzu will manufacture its battery D-Max pickup in Thailand next year, Reuters reports.

Speaking to media at the Bangkok International Motor Show, Toyota Thailand's Noriaki Yamashita says the Hilux could be ready by the end of next year. He does not specify where the vehicle would be produced but adds the automaker expects to sell 250,000 vehicles this year.

Thailand is a regional auto assembly and export hub and has been dominated by Japanese brands such as Nissan and Honda Motors but, as BEV adoption gains momentum in the area, Chinese automakers including BYD, Greta Wall Motors and state-owned Changan Automobile advance, having invested about $1.44 billion into production facilities in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

Toyota, the Thai market leader accounting for a third of sales, will deliver a dozen battery Hilux pickup trucks to the tourist beach town of Pattaya in eastern Thailand for trials as public transportation next month, Yamashita says.