Hybrid power coming to Toyota HiLux and Fortuner next year

Electrification has been officially confirmed for the top-selling Toyota HiLux and related Toyota Fortuner next year, at least for the South African market.

The bombshell was dropped late last week in a report published by CarMag, which quoted Toyota South Africa executives as confirming mild-hybrid versions of the popular ladder-frame pick-up and wagon twins for release in 2024, but that’s where the concrete details stop.

No technical specifics were revealed in the report, but the news bodes well for Australia given our market often follows the lead of South Africa – one of the world’s biggest right-hand drive markets – especially when it comes to the HiLux.

The flagship Toyota HiLux GR Sport was released in South Africa almost 12 months before Australia, for which the HiLux is produced in Thailand, and although both versions shared a lot of key specifications, they also differed in a number of key ways.

Therefore the first MHEV HiLux and Fortuner vehicles could hit showrooms Down Under either next year or in 2025, but that will likely depend on when the new-generation ute actually goes on sale in Australia, which at this stage still looks to be 2025.

It isn’t clear from the CarMag article whether the introduction of electrification will take place with the current HiLux or its replacement and it seems the executives reporters spoke to weren’t willing to divulge any extra information.

Toyota Australia expects at least half of its annual sales will be hybrid vehicles by 2025 and has promised to offer at least one electrified variant of every model in its line-up besides the performance GR portfolio, meaning electrification is coming to the HiLux, Fortuner, Prado and LandCruiser at some stage either this generation or next.

If Toyota Australia follows South Africa’s lead, some may be disheartened to learn the first electrified HiLux and Fortuner won’t be fully fledged hybrids as per the RAV4 or Kluger Hybrids because the mild-tech will only yield marginal fuel and emission savings compared to Toyota’s conventional parallel hybrid powertrains, and they won’t offer an all-electric driving range.

Instead, the electric motor will simply chip in a bit of extra power here and there to help take the load off the internal combustion engine, which looks likely to remain a 2.8-litre turbo-diesel.

A full hybrid system is all but guaranteed to become available in the next-gen HiLux and Fortuner, and our first preview of that powertrain could be provided by the all-new Prado and maybe even the Lexus GX later this year.

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