By now, we can firmly say that compact trucks are back in America. The Ford Maverick continues to be an absolutely segment-breaking vehicle, while the Hyundai Santa Cruz is still out here posting respectable numbers for something more lifestyle-oriented. However, it won’t be a two-horse race forever because Motor Trend reports that a small unibody pickup truck from Toyota is on its way, and it seems like it may be worth the wait.
With the Maverick’s popularity, Toyota has watched the segment grow—and it’s a segment it doesn’t compete in but would like to. Cooper Ericksen, Toyota Motor North America’s head of planning and strategy, told MotorTrend the automaker is building the truck. “Decisions have been made,” he said. “The question is when we can slot it in. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ at this point.”
Reading between the lines here, Toyota seeing the instant success of the Ford Maverick in 2021 and not deciding that “when” is “ASAP” has to be one of the bigger bag fumbles in recent history, but Toyota has the goods to do it properly. Not only does the company have a cult-like truck fanbase and the TNGA platforms, it also has several excellent hybrid powertrains that can do stuff Ford’s can and stuff the Maverick can’t.
The 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder hybrid powertrain in the RAV4 would be a perfect match against the Maverick’s hybrid system, but Toyota also offers the Direct4 hybrid powertrain, a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with a conventional automatic transmission and electrification, good for a combined 340 horsepower. Oh, and then there’s the plug-in hybrid powertrain offered in the RAV4, which adds a bigger battery pack and grid charging equipment to the 2.5-liter naturally aspirated hybrid setup to produce 320 combined horsepower and run around town on electric power alone.
Alright, so Toyota doesn’t offer a mechanical all-wheel-drive system in any transverse hybrid application, but will most consumers care? The through-the-road all-wheel-drive system of a small electric motor on the rear axle will be enough for many, especially considering compact trucks are primarily used as everyday cars or light-duty service trucks.
What’s more, Toyota has made unibody truck concepts before. There was the A-BAT concept of 2007, a hybrid unibody truck that would’ve been massively ahead-of-the-curve. However, that doesn’t mean Toyota hasn’t been working on a similar project recently. In 2023, the marque showed off something called the EPU concept, and while it was purportedly electric, I wouldn’t be surprised if a future compact truck from Toyota looks something like it in some way.
After all, if the EPU was just a show car, why would it have real mirrors, or amber reflectors in the headlights, or bumper shut lines, or a full interior with production-looking seats? Sure, a production-spec small truck probably won’t be all-electric, but the EPU looks like more than just a rough first draft. Either way, Motor Trend predicts that Toyota’s small truck is on its way for 2027 for a starting price around $30,000 and hybridization. That’s about the time Ford expects to have its $30,000 electric pickup truck ready, but given how not everyone is ready to go battery electric, Toyota’s hybrid should have plenty of sales potential.
Top graphic image: Toyota
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It’ll probably happen, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for it. There’ve been ‘next year’ rumors about a reboot of the Toyota Stout nameplate for a few years now… basically, since the Maverick was released. Eventually, Toyota will probably release a small truck, since they’ve got cars in most every other niche.
Added later: of course, if/when this does come out, dealers will mark it up at least $10,000., so I won’t be buying it despite me having the interest in a modern car (w/all the modern safety stuff).
Concept doesn’t look realistic. Windshield to front bumper is too short, not much of an engine bay. I still think an SUV is a better option. A mini-pickup is a car cut in half with the very small bed completely segregated. An SUV has a convertible space – people or things. They’re cute but lack real utility and the backseat passengers will be cramped.
there we go, fixed it for me: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UkQ88ZmdZw-DHhXqTYQ2-oivRdnnqCjo/view?usp=sharing
So perfect they would never go for it.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this vehicle NEEDS to be offered with a 2-door, 6-foot bed option. Make it the sub-$30K version. Let people who want the fancy version with more doors and less box be the ones who pay more and increase the bottom line.
I’d rather them just make it a mid-gate. My parents have had an Avalanche for 21 years now, and it’s still the best utilitarian vehicle I’ve ever used.
Wasn’t there some rumor on here about the Mav getting a midgate [in the near-ish future]?
Guessing this rumor more about the new BEV (Ranchero?) truck getting midgate. Ford did file a patent for one. Coincidence that BEV truck hoopla specifically mentions the bed holding a surf board?
https://fordauthority.com/2024/05/patent-filing-suggests-ford-maverick-could-get-midgate/
I’m not sure how possible that is with unibody construction. The angle between the bed and the rear glass has to handle a ton of stress and iirc the further that is from the rear axle the harder it gets.
They’d sell dozens of them!!!
While I love the idea of a Ute, frankly I don’t think the market is there for any 2-pass vehicle. Full size barely sell any (by percentage) and personal coupes are dead outside of performance cars. They don’t sell these in large enough numbers to make it worthwhile, especially with the high tooling a different unibody is.
The problem is that a regular-cab full-size truck starts at $41K nowadays. That’s a big reason people aren’t buying them. If ANYONE could make a basic, regular-cab small truck for around $30K or less, people would buy them. Small, independent painters, landscapers, gardeners, couriers, locksmiths… All the same types of people who bought the basic $11K Rangers and S-10s back in the ’80s and ’90s when they were all over the place.
If you think they’d only sell dozens of them, explain why Slate Auto has received over 100,000 reservations for its electric pickup truck since its unveiling in late April 2025.
(BTW… I’m interested in the Slate truck, but I have some reservations about going fully electric. I just put a 50A electric service in my garage this year, but there is basically zero infrastructure for charging in my area. There are a few Tesla Superchargers in a town around 50 miles away, and one town about 10 miles away has one charger that might or might not work on any given day. The nearest metropolitan area with a lot of chargers is around 100 miles away.)
This, I had a tree guy who drove up in a Hyundai Tiburon because he didn’t want a ‘huge’ pickup to transport a polesaw and some chain-saws. There’s definitely a market.
Maybe not for consumers, but for the trades, all the big vans are 2 passenger or 3 on a front bench (Ram Promaster) when outfitted for commercial tasks.
Somebody needs to bring back a small van for the commercial buyers…. it could be derived from a 2 or 4 door mini pickup.
Ford seems poised to do that, in a few years, as a BEV on its Universal EV platform.
Who do I need to pay for this to never come out and Toyota to forget all about this.
Who do I need to pay to make it come sooner?
I hear you might be able to find somebody in Pahrump, NV to make it come sooner.
If this truly comes to fruition, it’ll sell like hotcakes back in a time where people used to say hotcakes.
Especially if they get the price point of “Corolla Cross, but an extra 2-3k for the utility/more interesting form factor. The compact unibody trucks aren’t just a decent fit for a lot of people, but they bring some charm to a segment that is very much “blob on wheels”. These aren’t going to sell for 30k exactly (come on people, they’re not selling these for base model Corolla Cross money) but if they come well equipped around 35k, they’ll sell just fine.
$35k MSRP + $1500 delivery fee + dealer markup and you’re in the $40k range to start. then there will be the 1 option package that ads carplay for $3500.
Love it. Now give me a trunk like the RIdgeline has and I’m in. More smaller stuff please!
You’re either going to get it as a hybrid OR you’re going to get it for $30k.
Don’t expect both.
And even a non-hybrid version is going to be MIA when you step foot on dealer lots. Toyota dealers might be even worse than Ford dealers when it comes to having lower option vehicles available to purchase.
Isn’t the base Maverick the hybrid and it starts (before delivery) at <$30k? Yeah Toyota tax and all, but they’ve been defaulting to hybrids for most of their lineup now so I don’t know if you’ll get a non-hybrid version.
Go look at Toyota’s pricing on the new Tacoma, or almost any other of their models. They’ve lost their bloody minds. Plus factor in that this is a 2027 year vehicle. If you go to the Ford site now and pick 0 options and only 2WD and it is $30.5k for a 2025 Maverick. Add in 2 more years of inflation, plus tariffs if not built in the US, and I see no way how this new Toyota starts at $30k for a hybrid.
Sure once you factor in their “delivery” cost, but that’s never included in the advertised MSRP numbers. So the Maverick is advertised as “starting at $28,145” which if you add 2 more years of inflation on that you get ~$29,300 (assuming “normal” 2% inflation).
You can argue “real cost” but what they’re going to advertise is always going to be their MSRP cost before additions. (Now I would argue unless I can go pick it up at the factory and bring it home myself without those costs then those costs should be included in MSRP but that’s a whole different discussion).
We shall see. 2 years is an eternity in today’s business climate. Ford’s MSRP for the Maverick when it was first released was $20k. In 2 years time it was $22.2k. This year (just 2 years later still), it jumped to a whopping $28k (this time I am not including destination on any of these). That’s INSANE. Toyota is usually worse with this kind of BS.
no, it doesn’t. ford’s web site will confirm.
You mean the website that claims “starting at $28,145” for the Maverick?
When you try to build one with no options you get this:
Base MSRPS1 $28,145
OptionsS4 + $0
AccessoriesS8 + $0
Destination ChargesS17 + $1,695
Acquisition FeeS18 + $695
Total MSRPS16 = $30,535
So what’s the actual MSRP then? The “base” you can’t get or the “total” which is what you see on the sticker when you walk up to the vehicle?
Pulling out charges you ‘have’ to pay and claiming lower prices isn’t reality. Might as well say it’s $20k MSRP and then find out you have to pay $10k for the engine.
Acquisition fee is only for leasing.
I was hoping the higher MPG of EV/Hybrid would allow a return to smaller vehicles that the footprint rule punished for existing. Bring back the mini-trucks!
Looks like a winner to me.
This is where Tesla totally fumbled the ball. A Maverick-ish pickup on the 3/Y platform would have been a success (admittedly less now because of Musk’s political venture) but a success. Without spending the big tooling and development costs of the CyberTruk.
This is one of the odd things that if Musk were willing to at a minimum cherry pick the things that automakers actually do well, Tesla would probably be in a better position (combined with being less of a Nazi). That platform should have 4-5 different body styles by now. Even if they saw diminishing returns after a while, those other models would have at a minimum made money, versus the “let’s set piles of cash on fire” decision-making that led to the Cybertruck.
He hasn’t made particularly good decisions in nearly a decade at this point. Admittedly he was a great CEO for a young startup, but I think his drug problem has clouded his judgement and fried his brain, and lord knows his politics now make the brand toxic.
Tesla should have switched to a more traditional CEO a long time ago and started filling in more automotive segments
Makes sense. Need something to get people in the door and, “on the treadmill.”
What will do that? Something they can make payments on that they’re happy with.
The idea of this pickup is a good one, but I’m so tired of projected selling prices. Nobody can truly believe they can bring this to market for $30,000. It’s so insulting.
Perhaps it is, “we need a vehicle that we can profitably sell at $30,000″, even if they never actually sell a version that cheap. It means, if people actually stop buying things above that price, their business plans don’t fall apart.
They can. The Maverick Hybrid and Corolla Cross Hybrid are both $30k. Whether or not they will, well…
Keep ‘em coming.
Make it look like an 80s pickup and it will sell like crazy.
Also throw Subaru a version for a new BRAT
The ideal is Marty McFly’s truck with a hybrid 4×4 drivetrain
Or a Baja
Wish some billionaire would throw money at getting the Alpha Motor pickup line into production.
So, that will be about 6 years after the Maverick. A model takes about 5 years to get to market, there was COVID when the Maverick debuted, so they might have wanted to see how real world successful it would be, and nobody else seems to be jumping into this obvious space. Minus not recognizing the space in the first place, I’d say Toyota is pretty on the ball here. For AWD, many people buying it in these classes only think they need it (as evidenced by the success of BS part-time reactive systems and Toyota’s own hybrid AWD setup or even people with FWD CUVs that they think are AWD), so the motor on the rear axle should be fine, plus they might be able to bump up its power a little and allow it to do more work than with their cars if they feel it’s necessary.
Hyundai Santa cruz should be cheaper.
I agree with your whole comment in general, but one of the criticisms of the RAV4 hybrid is that it sends too much power to the rear axle. Put a RAV4 hybrid in sport mode and mash the throttle in a turn. It will put enough power down to squeal the back tires and kick out the rear end just a bit.
Interesting, I had no idea that was going on. Funny that the typical buyers would complain about that, though I get it. My experience is only with the AWD Corolla and I’m convinced that the rear motor in that is pretty much for marketing as it’s only something like 18hp and disconnects at 20 mph (numbers may not be exactly right). I assumed this truck would be based on the cheaper TNGA-C platform to hit that price, but I imagine it would also have to be larger than the other -Cs and that might require -K.
sounds like a feature?
Well, as someone who owned 2 Toyota compact pick-ups and is in the market for a small weekend electric/hybrid truck this gives me some hope. I just don’t want a 4-door! Give me a standard cab with a decent size bed. Toyota only sold about a zillion of those in years past. I can’t say I’m holding out much hope for either Slate or Telo to come through for me. Maybe when I retire in a few years I can buy an old Toyota or Ranger and do an electric conversion – how hard could that be?
You’ll get 4 doors and a 3.5ft bed and like it.
RAV4 with a parcel shelf.
I’m quite the opposite. I’m building a custom mid 80s Datsun 720 quad cab since we never got those here in the states. But since I don’t want to shorten the bed, wheel base is going from 111 inch to 130 inch, and the total length is getting pretty big. Narrow but still long. Gonna be awesome
Like a Dachshund.
I am so looking forward to seeing what you come up with. With your 720s.
That said, this as a PHEV, that’s not ridiculously expensive, could pry my 2017 Accord V6 out of my cooling off, but not dead hands. Time will tell.
Driving dynamics will also be a factor. The Accord, which could well outlive me, is pretty nice. And it’s paid off.
But, if they do this very well, I could go there.
I think even nissan will not pair the king cab and long box. Heck a f150 regular cab log box is about the smallest thing going in 2 door with real box length.
They won’t make a whole different passenger cell/frame for a car with lower margins and a smaller market (since it can’t “do everything”). You’ll have the back half of someone else’s car welded to your car and like it.
I’m shocked that:
1). Ford was the only manufacturer to notice that there were no affordable, reasonably sized trucks on the market
And
2). 4 years later no one else has one yet
I mean I get it to an extent. Corporate greed/line go up/we need to force everyone to drive $70,000 behemoths because we make the best margins on them and motherfuck our customers, stupid dumb idiots/etc.
But shit. You can make money on lower margin/higher volume products. I don’t necessarily even think all of the Maverick’s success is due to it being a truck necessarily…it’s just a useful, efficient vehicle you can drive off a lot for less than $30,000.
People want and need those!
The Hyundai Santa cruz just does not count. too car like and too expensive?
Too expensive, too weird, and most of all….no hybrid option
2). 4 years later no one else has one yet
I know its not exactly the same price point, but the Santa Cruz is technically a pickup truck in that size
I think they notice the lack of inexpensive trucks, but don’t find reasons they’d want to fill the gap. The trend is upmarket, longer financing terms, etc.
Why? To avoid self-competition, to avoid competing with used cars, to pursue more high-tech autonomy and connected services? It seems like the absolute last thing automakers want to resort to is making a new car affordable, and I can only guess at why.
It will be interesting to see what Toyota comes up with. I hope it’s something that will interest me. And dodge the on again off again tariff stuff going on. Oh, and the chicken tax.
Geezus.
I hope Slate announces a small hatchback next. Then we can get automakers announcing their responses and maybe a few will actually make it to reality.
Slate is DOA.
I don’t need them to make it, just announce it and show a prototype.
The straw man
Alpha Motors probably has you covered.
This reminds me to get my $50 back.
I love Slate, but Ford and Toyota have been working on these for at least a couple years now. I don’t think it has anything to do with the current Slate hype.
As far as I’m concerned, these are a direct result of the Slate announcement.
If we can get them to announce a 5 door hatchback or mid sized wagon, we’re good.
Slate announced in April, both Toyta and Ford have releases targeted for 2027. It take more than 2 years to bring a new vehicle to market. They’ve been working on this for at least a couple years now.
hopefully the big players are working on all sorts of stuff all the time so when the market shifts they’re not 5+ years out on something to sell.
Automakers definitely knew they were stretching the limits of pricing, and these plans didn’t come overnight. Slate is a more flexible outsider responding to some of the same factors, but “we NEED to make cheaper cars” was definitely a regularly-snoozed reminder on every automaker’s phone.
Maverick could hit tariff issues? Who knows? Toyota would be smart, given the current climate, to build this in the States.
Will the hood be 9 ft in the air and the grill the size of a billboard to cosplay in the rugged macho lifestyle?
Only in the US market.
American ‘alfas’ are fragile.
Alfas are fragile the world over. Italian cars don’t have a reputation for being reliable.
Ambassador Andrei Lysenko: There is another matter… one I’m reluctant to…
Dr. Jeffrey Pelt: Please.
Ambassador Andrei Lysenko: One of our submarines, an Alfa, was last reported in the area of the Grand Banks. We have not heard from her for some time.
Dr. Jeffrey Pelt: Andrei, you’ve lost another submarine?
The spelling was intentional for that very reason.
2 years like EV solar trikes or flying cars?
I hope it’s as good or better than the Maverick. The Maverick is incredibly compelling in most ways, minus the reliability and iffy build quality (I own one); it does truck things well enough. If they can market it more like a truck and less like a lifestyle vehicle (cough cough Santa Cruz), they will sell many. I hope they make one with some light offroad chops (slight lift, lockable diff) as something like that would be perfect for my use case.
I love the Maverick in almost every way but the tiny back seats make it a non-starter for us. If you have kids in car seats it’s a no-go, and unfortunately so is the Bronco Sport, which I also like. Hell most “mid sized” trucks can’t even fit car seats or adults in their back seats.
The packaging is just laughably bad because everyone is obsessed with making sure the trucks like MUSCULAR AND INTIMIDATING or whatever. Suffice to say…if Toyota gives it a real back seat it’ll be a runaway success, because I know I’m not the only person that would consider using the right small truck as an enthusiast dad car if it existed.
Interesting you say that. The Maverick works (just) for our case and 1 backwards carseat. The Maverick also has 2″ more rear seat legroom than a Ranger and 4″ more than the Tacoma.
I see “Two Years Away” in the headline and automatically assume it flies too….
I see “two years away” and assume that here in third world Yee Haw land we’ll all be mandated by the state to finance $70,000 body on frame behemoths by then….
Toyota absolutely dropped the ball with this one.
Eh, they’re doing fine. This will do great as soon as it comes out.
It’ll most likely be the rebirth of the Stout. Hopefully Toyota doesn’t make it too ugly like they did with the new Tundra, Tacoma, and 4Runner.
In all fairness, the stout from the early 70’s was pretty ugly compared to the Datsun, Ford, and Chevy offerings at the time.
https://static.carfromjapan.com/car_25675094-36c7-4831-b3c5-b35b018ed01f_640_0
I think it looks cool.
I’m glad you like it. My choices do not reign over all.
Everyone to what they like