4th Gen Tacoma (2024+)

I think it si shaping up to be almost identical

 

For what it's worth, I believe the body of the Toyota EV Truck was actually based on the current generation Tacoma and modified from there. That said, I do suspect some of the design features were probably lifted from the new Tacoma to do it, so...

EDIT: It's clearly not just a Tacoma with EV added, but I do think the cab started as a current Tacoma and was heavily modified from there, there are a number of hard features that are too close/the same to think it was a from-scratch concept body.

Jeff

 

Good catch. I think it looks very close. The slats on the bottom of the bumper look to be conserved between the EV rendering and test vehicle as well. Trying to imagine how a non color-matched grill would look, but I think the design is very promising.

 

More spy shots from Flagstaff, AZ: https://www.reddit.com/r/Toyota/comments/108thrp/next_gen_tacoma_seen_in_flagstaff_az_011023/

Cranking up the gamma, I can make out "BFGoodrich" on the sidewall. The tread pattern then corresponds to BFG Rugged Terrain tires.

 

To me it is deff more square looking

 

Also first look at production wheels/center caps? Is there actually a tail light intrusion into the tailgate? Seems odd. Maybe the tailgate cladding is from a different vehichle.

 

DiD it HaVe a MaNuaL? NoT goNNa BuY it iF I Can'T RoW mUh GeArs! 3500RPM in ThIrD she PULLLLSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!



Looks like it has rear discs so they got that right, if it has a turbo 4 they got that right too, now let's see price.

 

Just spotted this article ............
Next-Gen Toyota Tacoma Still Testing, Will Rival Ford Ranger (fordauthority.com)

 

I traveled out of the country, so I've been out a long time and even though I've been back a few weeks, just been busy.

(Sighs) I am not someone who likes to be wrong, but I am the person who stated that and it came from a credible source, who was quite specific. It also matches several Toyota Dealer principals' information as well, who do not seem to echo TFL's shoddy narrative of Turbo 4 and Hybrid Max only. In fact, I don't see anything T24A non-hybrid anywhere. Again, I am a messenger and can only provide firsthand insight on FMC vehicles, which I no longer do so publicly, after covering the Bronco to a high personal risk level due to NDA embedded in employment contract.

I really, really expected a Tacoma BEV. This seems to echo what I heard and now seems to be showing up. BEV Hilux is being planned, but not Tacoma as of my knowledge from Q4 2022. That hopefully changes this year. Another truck gets a BEV, but I'm not gonna comment on that one, since it was just shared recently and I don't want to look like I just use my source for spilling his info around without asking permission. Had a scare over Christmas, that I had been ghosted for previous posts I made on here sometimes borrowing that info. I am 100% certain he posts here too, so I'm treading on thin ice already. I hate posting inside info from other users who might use the same forum, as that just feels like plagiarizing in my capacity as a professional. Rather them speak on it first.

Oh man, don't you know it? We get so pissed, at the shitty media coverage via some vloggers and "journalists", who are clearly not given as much resources if they're putting out half-assed guesstimates which don't match up with reality. Really got annoyed with Kirk K. for posting the GM 31xx2 cousins, in Canyon AT4 trim as the next Tacoma.

Since I briefly taught for like 5 minutes as a professor, I try to share and educate people on some things I've learned on my own.

Automotive OEMs have unique camouflage patterns we use across each company, not brand, but company. At Ford, all Lincoln and Ford prototypes use the same patterns, so you cannot tell if you're seeing a Ford or Lincoln specific vehicle.

BMW Group has unique patterns and methods of covering up prototype vehicles, that are shared across brands. Rolls-Royce, BMW, and Mini use the same type of camouflage. BMW as early as 1987, used very similar camouflage on the first E31 prototypes, that actually predated today's style of pattern print camouflage. Prototype disguises used to be much more elaborate in the 20th century, but became much easier to make in the early-mid 2000s without changing the actual design too much for testing.

Unfortunately as you posted this, someone had already seen the final (integrated vehicle) testing and posted it on Reddit January 10th. Then the news outlets began to post them as well, from KGP spies on January 18th. Seems that almost all the time, these Tacomas are caught by the public before the pros that sell them for big $$$.

I am somewhat tired of this rumor being passed around, because the base Tacoma is not a turbocharged 4 aka T24A-FTS 2.4L I4T. It is an NA I4 and not really all that new either. Same 2TR engine. Been confirmed here by other people too, but I don't how many times we can say it. TFL, Rob-BS-Motive, and many other clowns out there are not the credible sources to trust on this topic. They got Hybrid Max (TRD Pro) right, but not anything else.

Toyota is keeping that 2.7L engine for fleet buyers, who don't want to rock the boat. The I4 step-up is from the AXUH70, known A25A-FXS and the halo engine for one trim level only is from the TALH17 Lexus and TZSH35 Toyota, which is T24A-FTS. Biggest engine is, wait for it...the same old 3.5L 2GR-FKS. Many options available, in order to stay number 1. Again, I am just a messenger in this respect.

Yep, best way to approach it. Great advice. Toyota deliberately unveiled the 2022 Tundra so late in September 2021, to ensure ordering for the 2021 MY had closed and no one would be able to place an order, in negative response to the outgoing vehicle. They sure as hell did the opposite, of what they did in February 2006, by allowing people 9 whole months to decide if they wanted a 2006 Gen 1 or an all new 2007. They narrowed that gap on purpose for Gen 3, to saddle any V8 buyers to sticking with only available inventory on lots, seeing as production ended in October 2021.

Someone on Reddit actually caught these testing a week earlier in AZ and I didn't even know. Toyota deliberately seems to aim for 1 year before launch, before allowing anyone to get a pic of their prototypes in final body form. It's deliberately timed, as someone casually saw this first before professionals, just like back in October 2021 with the first mule sighting.


I had said those began assembly in early November, but I had no full grasp on when they would appear in photos. Toyota clearly employed some methods like all of us do, hide em in early testing until distance to launch has been reduced. Always exactly 1 year out, you see the real thing covered.

As a Brit living in USA, I am forever a Bond geek LOL (especially for video games). This week marked 28 years since the first scenes filmed for GoldenEye on January 16, 1995. That scene was February 1995 in Monaco. Crazy how time flies.

Looks nothing like the Frontier? Nissan notoriously borrowed heavily from the Tacoma ironically when it was designed around 2017-2018. I first saw it secretly in either 2018 or early 2019 as a plastic 1:1 mockup, before I jumped ship when Ghosn's arrest almost tanked everything.

No, Grand Highlander only. This is coming after that.

Well, this is definitely it. Been building them since November at that exact facility in the photos, but hiding them. Now it's exactly 1 year out, it's okay to show the real thing in camo.

Happened with Tundra.

I don't know how many times it can be said, it wasn't meant to last this long at all. Generation 3 was a Major Minor Change, retaining much of the 2nd generation, which itself was designed from 2000-2001/02 and then engineered to completion in 2003-04. This was intended to run just 6-8 years. The 2nd generation was a massive leap over its predecessor, this never was, so yes "finally", as it was basically an extended 19 year run in some capacity.

Amen to that 10000x over, as a multiple Raptor owner and don't care for the hypocrisy, in using Raptor original market lighting on vehicles that aren't wide and then ironically crapping on Ford products. It lacks originality. Everyone else used the old fashioned roof mounted lighting to meet DOT guidelines on vehicles wider than 12 inches, until that lighting design on our P415 Raptor debuted in 2008 and then the aftermarket copied it.

I honestly believe that TRD Pro and Raptor specific extras should be strictly left to those trim levels and not copied for lower trims, unless the OEM offers it as an option like the T O Y O T A grilles. Hate seeing fake TRD Pros too, then seeing the same folks criticize Pro buyers as "throwing away money". It's nice when the aftermarket is actually creative like Satoshi grilles of yore and adds mods that aren't directly taken off of halo trim levels. Feel the same way about fake BMW Ms and fake AMGs.

I can't say it enough, as even though I agree with @Jeff Lange, Toyota had a unique reason for immediate pre-TNGA vehicles, to run them very long and I will explain that in depth soon. It's not standard fare, save the most recent exceptions over the course of the 2010s.

I strongly disagree with the bold, but as an actual owner unlike me (congrats!), I'm curious why you think so? The new ALA10 (code) 2023 Lexus RX is all-new in every aspect and nothing is carried over at least to my knowledge. It's so new, Toyota revised its chassis code (ALA10) nomenclature into an entirely new 5 digit format compared to the last 2 gens called AL10 and AL20. And before that XU10 (1998) and XU30 (2003)

The 90s RX (XU10) was originally based on a modified 3rd generation ES (XV20) platform (based on XV10 ES 300 from 1991), modified for slightly heavy dutier use in a crossover and as a stopgap solution, while Toyota initiated development of a semi-modular FWD architecture the K Platform from the mid-1990s. What came out of that development, was the originally intended replacement for the 3rd generation 4Runner, the unibody crossover in the 2001 Highlander (revealed April 2000, Job 1 November 2000, launched Jan 2001). Toyota couldn't really deliver a near-luxury unibody vehicle above the more spartan RAV4, unless an all new platform was created from 1995.

In 1998 Toyota finalized that XU20 Highlander and had plans to kill the 4Runner after 2000. 4R got saved by dealer body uproar and the 4th generation came to market initially as a 2UZ V8 in Oct 2002, then 1GR V6 from January 2003. On the heels of that, the 2nd generation RX (XU30 aka RX 330) finally moved to that architecture in the spring of 2003 (Job 1 Feb 2003) and so did the Camry and ES before that in the summer of 2001. Avalon joined it last in 2005.

Since February 2003, Toyota had used the same K Platform for the Lexus RX, with changes made underneath every redesign in November 2008 (2010 model) and October 2015. For the first time in 20 years, the 2023 RX (Job 1 Nov 2022) uses a new platform and finally abandoned the K Platform with engineering roots in the 1990s. No engines are carried over, all new basis inside-out and everything you can mention (I think). Highlander moved to first gen TNGA-K in December 2019 and gets redesigned in 3 years, but apparently the RX gets the revised second gen TNGA-K and Highlander won't until 2025.

What Toyota has been doing though, is deliberately making sure that a lot of TNGA redesigns are evolutionary and hard to tell apart from predecessors. The 2022 NX looked like it was a facelift on the outside, but it's on the larger midsize GA-K architecture and no longer the New MC basis once used by the Corolla like the first gen NX. The 2018 Camry looked a lot like 6th generation Camry (2006-11) on purpose. Newest LX and Land Cruiser, feel barely different than the previous models. 200-Series in 2007 was a leap over the 100-Series. 300, hardly, but totally new anyway. The 2020 Corolla looks ridiculously similar to the previous gen, but they're totally different cars via platform change from New MC to TNGA-C.


Am I possibly missing something that carried over from the 2022 RX to the new platform 2023 RX, outside of styling? I haven't paid too much attention to it, outside of some technical info and don't personally own one. They said it's totally new in every sense, except the exterior styling of the DLO migrating over to the new platform.

I want to be right on this, because I have been told that the EV Concept was pretty much the next Tacoma. I feel like I'm the only person to "confirm" that, but I only have 1 or 2 sources on it. No one else has touched on that. If I am wrong, just know it wasn't my info firsthand.

Wow, I didn't realize this. Thanks for that information. I knew RHD lost that years ago, but didn't pay close attention to learn more about LHD units no longer having the RA61F as optional.

The similarities to the current truck have been suspicious at times, but it stands on its own in many respects.

Hmm, I'm not sure. Toyota I had thought used plastic 1:1 scale mockups, to showcase the EVs and not actual running models. If they did this, there would be no need to use the basis of an existing model. If the truck was a running unit, then modifying a current Tacoma to reflect the given design might be necessary. Product evolution seems to be the story here the whole nine yards, over revolution like the Tundra. That basically took the Tacoma here and upsized it with a more aggressive design. New Tundra is more like a tall MMA fighter pumped full of steroids versus yesterday's Tundra the thicker "natty" sumo wrestler.


Resin mockups can be used as you probably know, for low speed prototype demonstrations. Since the final design of the Tacoma I am told was finished over 2 years ago and locked in for production about half a year before the Tundra press reveal, as you suggest, it easily could be readied for that December 14, 2021 presentation. Lexus shockingly teased the 2025 Lexus ESh via rendering, some 3 years ahead of launch, which had to be as the car was approaching design freeze and also the "fullsize" 2024 TX (see further below).

If that was more than 90% the Tacoma, that was a very bold move of Toyota to display it 2 years early.

At Ford, it was ever so painful to see this leak from January 2019 make the rounds, barely as the current Ranger went on sale in USA/Canada and years before they would get this version of the Ranger in August/September 2023. Cease and desist didn't work at all, so cat was let out of the bag for GM, Toyota, and Nissan to see for their midsize programs for 2021, 2023, and 2024.

P703 Winning Proposal Clay Mockup - January 2019



P703 Production Vehicle - 2022



Toyota being last, didn't have to worry about that. Only concern now, is maybe Nissan's next Navara that replaces the D23 and not so much the latest one.

It does look very close. Toyota revealed 4 future FWD Lexus models (through December 2024) on that day in 2021, so maybe this was the Toyota part of the puzzle.

Well stated, you are really really well versed in studying Toyota product planning patterns! Interesting...

1. The Sienna from what I recall was supposed to be redesigned much earlier, but the switch to a hybrid-only format and some other changes, forced a second refresh of the previous K Platform generation (XL30) for 2017 (2018 model). Plus, the lead TNGA-K vehicle wasn't ready either until Summer 2017 in the 2018 Camry XV70.
   • Toyota barely achieved a goalpost in January 2015 with the 010B Program 2018 Camry, when the final design was set and package plan was 100%. This didn't really give the 500B Sienna Program room to get up to speed on TNGA-K quickly enough, since GA-K barely began development in 2012 and 010B Camry in early 2013.
   • The Sienna got delayed 6 TIMES during development. 3 times during 2019 and 2020, 3 times between 2014 and 2019. I kept seeing launch dates slip on that, as it was supposed to come much earlier than it ultimately did.
   • --
2. The IS wasn't supposed fall behind the way it did, until the 2020 GS under 300B Program was cancelled abruptly in late 2016, when asked by the executive board for full funding and final design freeze for April 2019 Job 1. When that happened, some issues with TNGA-L were discovered with the IS and the idea to redesign it fell through eventually as well, but unlike the GS which wouldn't be renewed for MY 2020, instead kept until MY 2020 and then killed, the IS got intra-generational Major Minor Change along the lines of the 2016 Tacoma.
   • A new plan to redesign it for MY 2024 was planned, until a major turnaround occurred once again and upended that, when it was likely determined that the amount probably invested in the 2nd generation XE30/Gen 3.5 IS, deemed it frivolous to make another ICE IS in the face of BEVs.
   • These are not normal cycles at all and even the previous XE20 IS, ran later than planned internally. XE30 was originally meant to be Gen 3 for 2013 MY in 2012, but things slipped around early 2011 and made things run a bit later than planned by several months into 2013, now MY 2014.
   • --
3. The 3rd generation LS had loftier projections during development, from circa November 2001 to early 2006. After going on sale in September 19, 2006 (JDM) and October 20, 2006, by the end of 2007, Lexus had sold over 80,000 XF40 LS sedans since launch in September 2006. Then came the recession in 2008 and fell down to less than half the amount of sales. In November 2009, a poorly executed midlife update went on sale and failed horribly against the updated W221 S-Class Facelift.
   • By the end of 2010, MB took over US sales leadership for the first time since 2006, when the W221 2007 S-Class launched in February 2006 and the transition from LS 430 to LS 460(L)/LS600hL hurt US sales temporarily until October arrival of the LS 460 and new LWB LS 460 L for 2007 MY.
   • TMC product planners had been studying in 2007-2008, a 5th generation LS for spring 2013 launch as a 2014 model, which all came to a halt in 2009. When Akio Toyoda took over that June, the LS 460 was seeing its first refresh that year for 2010 MY in late 2009 showrooms and it was decided to order ANOTHER, but more comprehensive facelift (similar to the 2021 Lexus IS in the recent present), for the 2013 model year instead.
   • Eventually, entering 2010 that second Mid Model Change was finalized ahead of its August 2012 Job 1, wearing the new corporate Spindle Grille. Like the upcoming 4th generation GS due in late 2011.
   • Akio Toyoda had simultaneously ordered CALTY Newport to develop a replacement for the killed off SC from scratch, marrying LFA to British grand touring coupe design.
   • In late 2010, they came up with LF-GT. This vehicle would grow into the LF-LC Concept in 2011 and so would a new RWD modular architecture, being already devised for the future LS and RWD Toyota JDM lineup.
   • To draw up all of this a decade ago, explains why the 4G LS ran 11 years through 2017. Toyota didn't want to commit resources to an actual redesign for 2014, that wouldn't be using a new modular basis and the same old N Platform. Developing TNGA-L from 2011 to 2016/17, was the result instead.
   • Ultimately, it didn't pan out as well as planned. LC was beautiful and exotic, but hampered in some areas. LS 500 is a failure in its own right and did worse than expected. The 11 year run wasn't planned, havin given into delays for TNGA-L planning ultimately.
4. The 4Runner and GX, along with the Sequoia, were marked for death as of September 2012. After two midcycle updates, timed to arrive parallel to the successful Prado in September 2013, the naturalized American with a Japanese birth and the Lexus would die by 2017, in favor of TX crossover and Highlander once again, keeping its role. Sequoia wouldn't be directly replaced.
   • In March 2014, GX and 4Runner sales jumped massively, in response to the launch of the 2014 models some 6 months earlier. Month over month sales records began from that point and it was no turning back. All the naysayers at the April 2013 reveal of the 2014 4Runner and online experts calling it sea creature, didn't realize the buying public would go crazy over the updated 4Runner. Ditto for the GX 460.
   • Toyota in Japan didn't know what to do with themselves and stubbornly took a wait and see approach, watching sales tallies for 2014, then 2015, and committed to minor updates for both, plus began to study new generations for the nameplates.
   • TX was suspended for the second time, having been studied in the late 2000s as well as a different vehicle entirely and insufficient, as a stretched FWD K Platform offering. TX was likely rebooted in 2017, as a TNGA-K product this time around for 2023/24.
5. Sequoia was saved from cancellation in 2014-15 via the dealer body revolting and a facelift for 2018 was ordered for production, plus the XK80. That took many turns and a lot of years to get right, which achieved that critical point around 2019.
   • It finally arrived last autumn, after a very long development effort and reboot in the middle of the program onto TNGA-F. There were much different plans for the Sequoia and Tundra, but I am not going to say that out loud here.
   • Some of the wishlist items people asked for the Tundra, were on the docket from American personnel out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Saline, MI and Plano, Texas. Japan felt different and wielded their power over them, over some sour grapes as a for-profit business.
   • --
6. Toyota initiated development of the Tundra in 2015 for MY 2021 launch in October 2020. It came 14 months late in December 2021 and so has everything else after it, including the midsize GA-F vehicles.
   • The 300-Series also caused this, as it was supposed to be Q4 2019, then Q1 2020, summer 2020, and then ultimately summer 2021. Kept falling behind and thus a domino effect. LX ended up being January 2022. The styling shows in some areas, it was designed a long time ago.
   • Until those large BOF TNGA-F vehicles finished launching first, forget about a new Prado, 4Runner, or GX. This had nothing to do with normal practice, being only 1 of those had a future back in 2014. The earliest anyone was going to get a new 4Runner was for MY 2022 per 2017 planning and no sooner than that.
   • It fell behind from 2022 to 2023 to 2024 and now 2025. The GX was entirely rethought into a niche vehicle, when RXL and unibody TX came into the picture and took off the pressure of being the traditional family 3 rower for Lexus.
7. Early 2nd gen Tundra like the LS was a sales disappointment, no thanks to recession showing up over 1 year after January 2007 launch and thus it instead received a Major Minor Change for 2014 in August 2013, since Toyota back in 2010 saw that redesigning it so soon was a dead-ended gamble.
   • The TMMTX plant was hated investment by Akio Toyoda and a symptom of unnecessary hyper growth by his predecessors, so between moving USA HQ from Torrance, CA to Texas and trying to find ways to justify the waste of billions on that TMMTX plant, he moved Tacoma production there and wanted to better amortize the 2000s expenditure over a longer period of time.
   • When development of the current Tundra finally began, many hiccups happened along the way and considering the date when it started, a 4th midlife update for 2018 sufficed alongside the 2018 Sequoia and eventually pushing back Gen 3 to MY 2022, happened down the road. The previous generation Tundra ran from May 1999 to late 2006. T100 ran from November 1992 to late 1998. It wasn't considered normal for the Tundra to run 15 years, but it happened due to hiccups and anger over poor returns. The Tacoma doesn't have that issue.
8. The Sequoia was marked for death, after what would've been a 7-8 year run, which began in December 2007. When it was greenlit, it had to wait its turn in line for a redesign.
9. The FJ is a wild card of sorts, that couldn't pass something IIRC stateside and had to end in 2014. Sales didn't help, but people still bought them.

Anyway, someone who worked in Toyota product planning during the 2010s in Torrance, told me that they intended for the Tacoma to run 6-8 years from September 2015. The budget was very restrictive on what they could do and not a very long effort. It got off ground in late 2011 and picked up pace during 2012. Styling team finished their part a year later in 2013 and design release folks had the truck at design freeze by the time 2014 hit, so it would be ready for Job 1 in the summer of 2015 for September launch.

He expressed disappointment at some concessions Toyota made, that ended up showing up in later years instead or not all for "Gen 3".

I have tried to pretend I didn't those old chassis codes from the 2nd gen, but damn you are equally as observant, but more honest about it. I call the truck N300, but hard to do that if GRN245 is still a designation. This truck has been around in some form since 2004 and it's high time it gets replaced.

As I stated many times and clearly you agree with, the 2nd generation Tacoma wasn't replaced on time either, because after the first big update for 2009, a 2013 model was the next step. That got shot down and instead the 2012 facelift took the place of that, while some details were worked out. The biggest issue was the economy, declining segment, and change from NUMMI in Fremont, CA to TMMTX in San Antonio, within a 2 year process. Eventually, the idea of a Major Minor Change was rendered ideal around 2010 as a business case after '12 Tacoma, and of course work began on that in 2011 as 989A aka 2016 Tacoma. There was little competition.

Toyota favored 5-7 year lifecycles for BOF vehicles up until they got overextended in the late 90s and delayed Gen 2 Tacoma. I totally get why @TacoBuffet expressed puzzlement at that comment, as it seems like trolling to have this topic of questioning the redesign "as too soon" always come up.

I apologize to anyone who struggled to read through this and many typos I made. Will be edited for further clarity on Sunday.

 

Cranking up the saturation shows this:



So I'd say the tail lights will be vertical strips similar to the Tundra. The white patches in the camo are just there to throw off casual observers.

 

Looks like the trucks will have two frame-mounted tow hooks like 5th gen 4Runners do:



Looks like the other production tire will be Firestone Destination LE. Smaller wheel hub bore (like the Tundra) also apparent. Alignment will continue to be done via LCA cam bolts.

 

I posted these pictures last week….

 

I don’t care much about what it will look like. I care what it will have for an engine and transmission. It can be the greatest looking truck ever but if the drivetrain is shitty I’m not buying one.

 

Cool. I looked back 2-3 pages in this thread and didn't see them posted. The Reddit thread I linked was from 10 days ago.

 

Looks like the exhaust tip is a foot back from the rear tire.

 

But those mud flaps doe .

 

Agree. I've never gotten to hung up on how a vehicle looks. You can't see it from the driver's seat! I care more about how it functions and feels.

 

That looks a bit odd. Also what’s going on with the “frame” in front of the tire. It looks massive and pretty close to the ground?

 

You can tell this one is a turbo it has tow hooks.

 

Exactly!!! Guys put TRD Pro grills on SR, SR5, OR trims all the time. And most of the same guys will tell TRD Pro owners that they wasted their money!!