Since Ford released the Maverick, people have been waiting for a big truck company to come out with their small pickup. Toyota hasn’t said much about it, only saying that it is aware of the market and is looking into it. However, Ted Ogawa, CEO of Toyota North America, has now shared more details about a possible move into the market. Let’s stay calm, though. Toyota isn’t making its small car. You can be sure that it will get electricity at some point. Automotive News asked Ogawa what Toyota thought about a Maverick competitor. “That’s a good question, but we don’t have anything planned.” We are still investigating the electrification trend. Ogawa says that people who buy full-size cars are interested in something other than electric trucks. (Maybe not people who own old cars, but the Rivian R1T is popular.) However, smaller electric pickup trucks are more popular, and that’s where Toyota is paying most of its attention right now. “There are more chances to electrify medium-sized or smaller areas than full-size areas.” So, Ogawa said, “In the future, we should think about a smaller size than the Tacoma pickup.” People might not want to hear that. In September 2023, Steve Gates, who was in charge of the Toyota National Dealer Council, said, “We hear stories every day, several times a week, from people who had older Toyota trucks, before those trucks even had names, and they long for another small Toyota truck.” The volume potential is huge, and it won’t hurt sales of the Tacoma or Tundra. It makes sense for Toyota to say that it doesn’t want to invest in electric trucks yet because they are the cars of the future, but the company can do both. At this point, any engine mix will work in a small Toyota pickup truck. Even Ogawa agrees that adding electricity to a small, low-MSRP truck costs a lot more. Obviously, making cars takes a long time. Competitors like Stellantis already have the Ram Rampage ready to go up against Ford, so we’ll have to wait a while to see Toyota’s little rival.
