New HiLux a month away

Toyota has confirmed it will use next month's Detroit motor show to stage the world debut of its next-generation Tacoma, which could provide vital clues to the replacement for Australia's top-selling ute, the HiLux.

Bob Carter, the senior vice-president of Toyota Motor Sales USA – the Japanese giant's North American subsidiary – told Bloomberg in an interview last Friday that the new Tacoma would be unveiled at the biggest US auto show, which commences on January 12.

Toyota Australia PR manager Mike Breen would not comment on the similarities between the new Tacoma and our next HiLux, saying only: "Tacoma has no relevance to Australia, and hasn't for several years.

"As we haven't received any official advice regarding an announcement, we're not in a position to make any comment."

However, like the existing HiLux it shares its platform and engines with, the current Toyota Tacoma sold in the US, Canada and Mexico hasn't changed significantly since 2005 – the same year the up-sized N70 series HiLux was released in Australia.

The redesigned HiLux was spotted testing in southern Europe in September and is expected to benefit from development input from Australia, where it's due on sale by this time next year.

As the spy pics show, the new HiLux's proportions won't change much, although the reshaped side window line incorporates a kicked-back C-pillar and the A-pillars also appear to flow into the bonnet line more smoothly.

There are more significant differences to surface design, including a new-look front end with redesigned headlights, a bold Toyota-signature lower air intake and a slightly different rear-end with re-profiled bumpers.

No wholesale powertrain changes are expected; more likely are upgraded versions of the current HiLux's 3.0-litre diesel and 2.7- and 4.0-litre petrol engines, and better transmissions than the current model's four- and five-speed automatic and five-speed manual offerings.

Change can't come soon enough for the HiLux. The decade-old ute still commands more than 20 per cent of its sales segment here and remains the top-selling new vehicle bar none in some states some months.

But it faces more competition than ever from newer rivals including Ford's Australian-designed Ranger, which has reduced its sales lead by almost 40 per cent since 2011. New Nissan Navara and Mitsubishi Triton models are just months away, followed by facelifted Ranger and Mazda BT-50 models around mid-2015.

In the US, General Motors recently relaunched its Colorado mid-size ute, which is all but identical to the Holden version recently upgraded in Australia, after a two-year absence from North America's mid-size pick-up segment.

Apart from the 2015 Colorado, the Tacoma faces renewed competition from the 2015 GMC Canyon and Nissan Frontier/Navara, but still attracts more than 13,000 American buyers a month to command two-thirds of the mid-size pick-up segment in the US.

Ford does not field the Ranger in the mid-size pick-up segment in the US, where more than 200,000 were sold to November this year, presumably for fear of cannibalising sales of its more profitable F-Series in the full-size pick-up segment, which so far this year has generated more than nine times as many sales.