If you were to picture the most expensive four-wheeled road-legal new Toyota people can actually buy, what pops into your head? The GR GT isn’t on sale yet, and we don’t know how much it will cost, so that’s out. The Century sedan feels like an obvious pick, but it’d only take third on this podium. The Toyota Century SUV is actually more expensive than the four-door, but there’s one model sitting ahead of it with a price of around $182,000 at current conversion rates. It’s called the e-Pallette, and it’s a combination shuttle van/food truck/sports cinema that seats five and stands an additional twelve. I bet you didn’t expect that.
Under the boxy silhouette of the e-Palette, you’ll find a modest 72.82 kWh lithium-ion battery pack sending current to a single 150 kW electric motor. Add it all up, and you have 201 horsepower pushing around 6,503 pounds before any passengers climb aboard. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why the top speed of the e-Palette is capped at 50 MPH. For context, that’s a bit slower than a 1950s Volkswagen bus, a vehicle that was never exactly renowned for its pace. As for cruising range, it’s a meager 155 miles on the generous WLTP cycle, making the e-Palette a suboptimal choice for road trips.
However, there’s much to love about the e-Palette even with its limitations. For one, it’s adorable. Those round headlights, the Toyota logo placed like a button-nose, it’s a machine with a face. It’s also roughly symmetrical when viewed from the side and has a huge amount of glass to let the outside world in. This thing would be amazing for sightseeing tours, especially because you can shut all the mosquitoes out while still getting a great view. Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is actually shorter than a 4Runner? Downtown, here we come.
Then there’s the dashboard, which is wonderfully unhinged. The e-Palette features a center-seat driving position like a McLaren F1, so all the controls sit in big banks on either side of the steering wheel. Um, make that the steering yoke. See, this machine is steer-by-wire, which means it can change its steering ratio based on vehicle speed, requiring very little lock to do U-turns in town. Still, it’s extremely weird to see a yoke sitting right next to a power mirror switch that seems to be straight out of a 2002 Camry. In fact, the switchgear comes from all over the Toyota parts bin. The trip computer switch bank appears to be shared with models like the Lexus LC 500, the infotainment unit might be from a Corolla, and the shifter’s from a current Aqua, which is the successor to the Prius C we got in North America.
As the e-Palette is primarily designed as a local shuttle, it should be no surprise that a variety of accessibility features are on deck. It can lower right down to curb height for easy entry, and there’s a deployable ramp for wheelchairs, strollers, and the like. Speaking of wheelchairs, a quick-lock in the floor can be specced for safety, partially facilitated by a bank of side-facing flip-down seats.
So what does Toyota think the e-Palette will be used for? Shuttle service is obviously the main focus, but the marque envisions people using the battery pack with a DC-to-AC converter to power food truck service, or outfit this wonderfully weird vehicle with a screen and a sound system to become a sports cinema. A bit of an odd use, but there’s one thing allegedly coming for it that should make that example make sense: An add-on suite of sensors that Toyota is promising should support Level 4 autonomy in 2027. We’ll have to wait and see if that promise is delivered on time, but some higher level of autonomy makes sense with this sort of vehicle.
Alright, so maybe adding a Toyota e-Palette to your dream fleet isn’t exactly an obvious move. What’s more, getting your hands on one is going to be a little funky because it’s only sold through direct sales in Japan. However, because it’s actually on sale, when there’s a will and the means of procurement, there’s a way. For now, it’s worth taking solace in the fact that the most expensive four-wheeled Toyota on sale is properly weird.
Top graphic image: Toyota
It’s adorable, but I’d rather have whatever similar boxy EV thing Toyota makes for regular drivers five years from now for a fraction of that price.
It’s awful cute though. 🙂
Why would I want to sit in a shuttle bus to watch sport in a shuttle bus that stinks from being a kitchen just a few hours prior? To be fair, why would I want to sit in a shuttle bus to watch sports at all. I guarantee my living room is more comfortable.
How the hell is that pushing close to $200k?!
According to the all-mighty Google, an electric shuttlebus can run anything from $150,000 to $400,000 depending on capacity, spec, etc., so this doesn’t seem too out of line.
…fun idea showing the game in the vehicle, but boy do I not want to be the one driving fans back to the lot on $1.50 beer night at the stadium.
Hope it can be hosed out.
Well, that and you hope rowdy fans from rival teams don’t board at the same time. Either way, there is no divider between you and tipsy people who’ve been outside several hours. Unless it’s a roofed stadium but I digress…