Australia crucial to 2024 Toyota Prado development

Australia has been confirmed as the only country in the world outside of Japan where the new Toyota Prado 250 Series underwent testing and evaluation.

Having just entered local showrooms, the new Prado is a global model offered in many markets including Europe and the USA, where it is known as the LandCruiser 250.

The 4x4 wagon has been hugely anticipated in Australia, where more than 17,000 units have already been ordered pre-launch, paving the way for an expected sales record in 2025.

Australia is designated as Toyota’s centre of excellence for 4x4 development and is estimated to offer about 80 per cent of the world’s different environment types – Toyota Australia’s vehicle evaluation and development team played a key role in the development of the LandCruiser 300.

The 250 Series Prado, which replaces the 15-year-old 150 Series, transferred to the 300’s TNGA-F ladder frame chassis and adopted mild hybrid electrification for its 2.8-litre diesel engine.

“The new Prado is much more closely related to the 300 Series than previous generations, more like a sibling than a cousin,” Toyota Australia vehicle valuation engineer Russell Tomlinson said.

“In relation to chassis development there were a lot of learnings from the 300 Series we could use.

“What is significantly different to the 300 Series is the powertrain and this required us to undertake a lot of testing, evaluation work and prototypes in diverse locations and terrains.”

While the engine is the same as one the one fitted to the Hilux, in the Prado 250 Series it’s mated to an eight-speed automatic instead of the old six-speed.

Another critical new Prado upgrade was lifting the braked towing capability from 3000kg to 3500kg.

“We did a lot of tow testing in some really harsh and rugged environments. We spent time in deserts tow testing especially, through and over dunes, which really puts a heavy load on the automatic transmission,” Tomlinson said

“It performed really well.”

Tuning the new electric-assist power steering was another focal point, along with ensuring the tank for the Adblue selective catalyst reduction system was protected off-road.

The new Prado is the first Toyota diesel to use Adblue in Australia.

From 2022 the Australian team worked with several different prototypes stages.

“They included platform prototypes that are hidden in plain sight with a current upper model body to protypes with an all-new upper body that can only be tested in private locations, to finally the production-quality confirmation vehicles,” Tomlinson said.

Testing environments included sand traps, unsealed desert roads, mud, water crossings, forestry tracks, rock, grassy paddocks and long mountain climbs.

“This testing aimed to confirm towing performance, off-road capability and even genuine accessories were environmentally resistant to meet every target need,” Tomlinson said.

The program included sessions employing drivers from the factory-backed Toyota Australia rally team to literally test prototypes until they broke.

The process began with Prado owner feedback to help establish development priorities began earlier.

“This customer research fed directly into the target setting for the new LandCruiser Prado,” Tomlinson said.

“It showed some key useage themes that we used. Regional customers such as farmers who used the vehicle to drive daily on unsealed roads and regional highways, city customers who use the vehicle for daily family transport, customers wo use it for towing campervans and trailers around the country and those who use it for touring our harsh but beautiful off-road environments.”

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