Here are five new Toyotas we look forward to meeting in 2023.
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The All-New Toyota Grand Highlander
Toyota
This one is confirmed. Toyota has a new three-row SUV called the Grand Highlander. It will debut on February 8, 2023. And it will offer the Hybrid Max powertrain that puts out 340 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque in the Toyota Crown.
We'd bet we'll at least see the new Tacoma during the 2023 calendar year. And reports suggest it could join the Grand Highlander in getting the potent Hybrid Max powertrain.
The Toyota 4Runner is also due for a massive overhaul. The current generation — with its 5-speed automatic transmission — entered production back in the summer of 2009. And the 4Runner likely needs to make some moves to counter the Ford Bronco and the Jeep Wrangler — even if one might argue those aren't direct competitors.
No one seems entirely certain what's going on with the 4Runner timeline — beyond it not arriving last year like some anticipated. We'll hold a candle hoping the new version is coming for the 2024 model year until Toyota tells us it isn't.
Toyota execs have mused about building a small pickup competitor for the Ford Maverick — which could eat into Toyota's market share when Ford can build enough of them. It would likely be a hybrid, an "SUV with a bed" format and probably be based on the Toyota RAV4 (the second most traded-in vehicle for the Maverick). One possible name is the Stout.
But TFL has a source (echoed by other Toyota analysts) claiming that the Land Cruiser nameplate will return to America with the new version of the Land Cruiser Prado — the smaller, cheaper Land Cruiser sold in America as the Lexus GX — sometime in 2023. The Prado is also expected to get a version of the Hybrid Max four-cylinder hybrid.
If that launch does happen next year, it could explain why the 4Runner appears to be delayed.
