Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series: Best render yet

Late last week Instagram user Kurdistan_Automotive_Blog published spy shots of the rolling chassis and body-in-white of the all-new 2022 Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series, and now Russian website Kolesa has used them to create the best image of the new LC300 we’ve yet seen.

While it’s difficult to make out the configuration of the powertrain, these renderings show a new design that doesn’t radically depart from the outgoing 200 Series, as some computer-generated images have suggested it will.

Instead, based on intel from the spy shots, the new rendering shows a familiar upright grille will be flanked a pair of narrow headlights intersected by both a chromed bar that extends from the centre of the grille and a T-shaped LED lighting element.

Likewise, the body-in-white’s glasshouse shows the 300 Series will feature a lower window line that kicks up at the rear to create a different C-pillar shape, although the slabby doors and body sides remain.

Under the big bonnet, as we’ve reported extensively, the 2022 Toyota LandCruiser will ditch the LC200’s existing 4.5-litre V8 diesel in favour of three six-cylinder powertrains.

For Australia, that’s almost certain to include an all-new 3.3-litre inline turbo-diesel from Mazda, which a leaked document suggests will produce 210kW/600Nm in the CX-50, as the replacement for the Mazda CX-5 is expected to be known.

It remains to be seen whether the Mazda diesel six will be tweaked to match or better the 200kW/650Nm outputs of the outgoing LandCruiser, which can tow up to 3500kg.

The SKYACTIV-D 3.3 inline six from Mazda should not only bring big advances in refinement and efficiency, but spell the return to straight-six diesel power for the LandCruiser for the first time since the venerable 4.2-litre 1HZ and 1HD turbo I6 engines disappeared with the 100 Series in 2007, when the 200 Series arrived.

The 300 Series is expected to be revealed in Japan in September with a Lexus-derived 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo petrol engine paired to a 10-speed automatic transmission and offering up to 300kW/600Nm.

An electrified version of the same engine is expected to power the first Toyota LandCruiser Hybrid later in the model cycle. However, the 300 Series is likely to be launched in Down Under exclusively with diesel power late this year.

Australia’s favourite full-size SUV continues to sell up a storm during run-out, but it’s not yet known whether its replacement will match the $81,000 starting price of the 14-year-old LandCruiser 200.

Indeed, price hikes are likely given the LC300’s expected move upmarket in terms of performance and technology, in part because it will reportedly not form the basis of a Lexus derivative to replace the LX in the US.