2024 Toyota Tacoma Pickup Spied With Hints of New Hybrid Powertrain
My, Toyota, what great big orange electrical cables you have there...
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When you're in the business of making vehicles for people to drive on public roads, eventually you'll have to test those vehicles on said public roads, running the risk that your secret, not-yet-ready-for-primetime prototype vehicle is caught by sharp-eyed bystanders with cameras. Such is the case with these images of the next-generation Toyota Tacoma midsize pickup, which, according to the photographer who captured them, might have a hybrid powertrain onboard.
How might the camera-wielder know that? They noticed that a rear window was down and through it was visible "a nest of bright orange cabling spilling out into the daylight." As some of you may know, the color orange, when on wiring or cabling, is generally consistent with the high-voltage sort found in electric and hybrid vehicles. This lines up with our earlier projections about the new Tacoma and a recent report from Motor1 that the next Toyota Tacoma will have at least two powertrain options, one of which will be be a hybrid consisting of an electric motor paired with a 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. If that sounds familiar to you, that's because the same hybrid powertrain is currently used by the 2023 Lexus NX350 hybrid SUV.
If the report is accurate then it looks like Toyota isn't quite ready to go 100-percent hybrid with its most popular truck quite yet, but this is a step in that direction. For a peek into the strategy likely to be deployed here, look no further than the recently redesigned full-size Tundra, which offers a twin-turbo V-6 engine both with and without hybridization. We could see Toyota perhaps giving the next Tacoma a non-hybrid turbo 2.4-liter I-4 (another offering found in the Lexus NX and RX SUVs mentioned in theMotor1report) as the entry-level powertrain beneath the more powerful hybrid version.
Besides giving the Taco the Tundra's same engine strategy, the non-hybrid turbo engine would line the midsize Toyota up against the newly turbocharged, four-cylinder-only 2023 Chevrolet Colorado and the upcoming next-gen Ford Ranger. For Toyota to join those trucks in the turbo club while adding a hybridized twist would be major news—remember, even in its old age, the current Tacoma is the best-selling midsize truck. Oh, and have we mentioned it'll also likely come in all-electric form, too?
Andrew Beckford’s passion for cars started as a middle schooler when his friend Richie explained how an internal combustion engine works. He was bitten by the bug and the rest, as they say, is history. He dug deep into the tuner scene and eventually wrote for Turbo Magazine, Import Tuner, Super Street. He covered car shows, feature builds, and reviewed racing games for those magazines in addition to covering motorsports including Formula Drift, Indy Car, and F1 for his personal blog. Eventually Beckford joined MotorTrend to cover the daily automotive news beat. Besides being a gearhead, Beckford has been a gamer since the ’80s and is a huge fan of the arcade racing games of the ’90s like Daytona USA, SEGA Rally, and Ridge Racer. Beckford’s a movie buff as well, especially comic book films from DC and Marvel. When car culture crosses over with gaming and entertainment, rest assured Beckford is aware of it. In addition to serving as a consultant on a “triple A” racing titles, he’s reviewed major racing games such as Forza Motorsport, Need for Speed, Gran Turismo, F1, and more. He’s also interviewed blockbuster directors including Steven Caple Jr. (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Neill Blomkamp (Gran Turismo). His biggest profile to date was with Robert Downey Jr. on his love affair with cars and his show Downey’s Dream Cars on MAX. Beckford’s profile of Downey Jr. was the first print cover story written by an African American in MotorTrend’s history. Along with KJ Jones, Andrew Beckford also heads up MotorTrend’s celebration of Black History Month by spotlighting diverse voices in the automotive industry and motorsports. Beckford’s first car was a 1982 Nissan Stanza affectionately named “Stanley” by his late mother.
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