New Toyota Tundra to let the light in

The teasers keep coming for the 2022 Toyota Tundra ahead of the all-new full-size American pick-up truck’s global debut in a few months – and its potential release in Australia.

Toyota kicked off its official reveal campaign for the new Tundra with a teaser image showing its LED headlights, fog lights and front light bar in May and then all but confirmed it will be powered by a twin-turbo petrol V6 in June.

Then following leaked images it revealed a single shot of the chunky new Toyota Tundra TRD Pro range-topper and a teaser image of its interior, revealing a huge new tablet-style infotainment touch-screen with Apple CarPlay and native sat-nav.

Now, Toyota has released an image of the new Tundra’s huge dual-pane panoramic sunroof and its full-width opening rear window, which can be seen in operation in the first video of the new model too.

“With a host of new features and returning fan favorites, the 2022 Toyota Tundra will expand possibilities for adventure when it is fully unveiled later this fall,” said Toyota in a press release overnight.

Spotted testing in the US back in November 2020, the third-generation Toyota Tundra has been under study for release in Australia as long ago as September 2019.

Since then senior Toyota Australia executives have repeatedly said they are keen to compete in the full-size US pick-up market Down Under, which is currently dominated by locally converted RAM and Chevrolet Silverado vehicles.

However, Toyota Australia has always said it would only do so if the Tundra became a global model, and it’s understood its local release hinges on a business case for right-hand drive production.

First introduced in North America in 1999 and then replaced by a second-generation model in 2007, the US-built Toyota Tundra is currently available in single-, double- and Crewmax-cab forms with a variety of tray lengths and V6 and V8 petrol engines, but it has never been produced in right-hand drive.

However, that could change given booming demand for full-size pick-ups not just in Australia, where the Toyota HiLux is now well established as not only the top-selling ute, but the nation’s favourite new vehicle bar none for five consecutive years.

Watch this space.