2025 Toyota HiLux now being tested in Australia

The bigger, more advanced new-generation 2025 Toyota HiLux is already being tested in Australia.

But Toyota reckons it is so clever at hiding development vehicles and prototype utes that we’re unlikely to see it until its official reveal – which could be later this year according to reports out of Japan.

Toyota Australia has had and continues to play a pivotal role in the development and testing of key global off-road and commercial models from the world’s biggest car-maker, including the next-generation HiLux, confirmed the company’s vehicle evaluation manager, Ray Munday.

“For the LandCruiser, Prado, HiLux, 70 Series… all those commercial products we’re typically the only country outside Japan that gets the prototypes, so we’re recognised there,” he told carsales.

“And for a global product like HiLux what normally happens is actually the other markets come here [for vehicle research and development].

“For virtually all commercial products, Toyota Australia is seen as the central hub for real-world evaluation. We’re a global centre of excellence,” said the engineering chief, who has experience working on chassis development for WRC, Dakar and Super GT race teams.

Munday wouldn’t confirm when the new HiLux will be released in Australia but it’s widely expected to arrive here in 2025, giving the decade-old existing HiLux’s updated mild-hybrid turbo-diesel engine about a year in the market after it arrives in the next few months.

Heavily based on North America’s new 2024 Toyota Tacoma, the new HiLux should be on sale Down Under well within two years of the locally-developed GR Sport flagship launched in September 2023.

Virtually all details around the vital new ute are still a tightly-kept secret, but the all-new 2025 HiLux ute is expected to solider on with the Japanese brand’s 48-volt mild-hybrid 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine (150kW/500Nm).

That powertrain will be the only option in the highly-anticipated new Toyota Prado, which launches here around August 2024.

However, there’s also a chance the current HiLux GR Sport’s slightly brawnier (165kW/550Nm) turbo-diesel could power other variants in an attempt to combat the increasingly popular Ford Ranger, which stole the crown of Australia’s most popular new vehicle from the HiLux in 2023 after the Toyota’s seven-year winning spree.

According to Japanese media reports, an all-new full-hybrid powertrain based around a 2.4-litre turbo-diesel is also on the cards and Toyota has made no secret of its plans to deploy an all-electric HiLux aimed at fleets, following the current-generation EV prototype we drove in October.

The next HiLux will be based on a variation of the TNGA-F ladder-frame platform architecture that underpins the Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series (as well as the new Prado, Tacoma, Tundra and Lexus GX).

Apart from making it bigger, more refined and higher-tech, that means it will also be ‘package-protected’ for the LC300’s lusty 3.3-litre twin-turbo diesel V6 (227kW/700Nm), which would provide it with the firepower to tackle the Ranger’s strong-selling V6 diesel models, as well as the GX’s twin-turbo 3.5-litre petrol V6 and 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol hybrid powertrains.

Toyota won’t talk about when we’ll see the next HiLux, but its local vice-president of sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley told carsales that “Obviously there will be a next-generation HiLux at some stage” and reiterated that Toyota Australia would play an integral role in its testing and development.

“We always have good input into all models and we have the Rogue here now that we convert locally. So yes we have a lot of input – as do other parts of the world – and Ray’s team have a lot of input.

“So we have a lot of local input into all models of that nature.”

Indeed Toyota Australia has played crucial roles in the development of several generations of LandCruiser over many years, most recently including the new 250 Series Prado, and Munday said a new veil of secrecy was implemented for the latest 300 Series LandCruiser.

“That’s been a change we’ve had to do over the last few years because there’s an increased focus on confidentiality. We’re still doing that same role, we’ve just worked out ways to do it more secretly… hiding in plain sight sometimes works,” said Toyota Australia’s vehicle evaluation manager.

“It was definitely a LandCruiser 300 strategy for a number of years. We’re very proud of it actually – we had no spy shots at all through that.

“There was one [case]… I don’t know how it happened, but driving back home from Anglesea [proving ground] on the Geelong freeway, there was a bunch of Japanese engineers in a reference vehicle, a previous-model car.

“And that car got photographed because it still had some tape from a bit of equipment on it and people said ‘It must be the new LandCruiser 300!’ and that went all over social media. But the actual prototype was two cars down the road – so that was the only spy shot.

“But all of those commercial programs we are heavily involved [in] all the way through development,” said Munday.

Stay tuned for more details on the 2025 Toyota HiLux as we get them.

Images: Unofficial renderings generated by AI