The Japanese automaker may return to the Tacoma segment it once occupied.
The American compact pickup truck market has been reenergized by the Ford Maverick, Hyundai Santa Cruz and the Ford Maverick. This segment was lost in the last decade due to the growing size of trucks. The arrival of these trucks last year brought it back to life, reviving Americans’ desire for smaller trucks.
These two items have been selling like hotcakes. The Santa Cruz was one of the most popular. Ford had to stop taking orders for the Maverick earlier in the year because of the overwhelming demand. Together, Santa Cruz and the Maverick have sold 50,000 units in total year-to-date.
Toyota is the only automaker considering entering the US compact pickup truck market and becoming a profitable player.
Toyota Motor North America Senior Vice-President of Automotive Operations Jack Hollis stated to Automotive News that “there is room” in the Toyota lineup, according to the now midsize Tacoma. The question is how do you fill it?
According to Automotive News, Hollis said that Toyota had “continued looking” at the compact truck market “and we’ve continued searching for a long while.”
Notable, the first generation Toyota Tacoma (pictured below) was a compact pickup. It was however moved to the midsize segment when Toyota introduced its second-generation model in 2004.
“It is undisputed that these products have a market place. How big is this segment going to grow? Cooper Ericksen (group vice president, product planning, strategy, Toyota Motor North America), said that although I don’t know the exact size of this segment, it is something we need to look at and decide if it’s a good area for us to play in.”
However, there are some things to be aware of. Toyota is trying to balance emissions regulation and vehicle sizes. The former is inverted in the US relative to vehicle footprint. We won’t be surprised if Toyota pulls the trigger on the segment’s profitability.