The staggering stubbornness of well-heeled South African off-roaders in their denial of sky-high fuel prices continues to be met with compliant glee from Ford and Volkswagen. But not from Toyota, who ‘sensibly’ dropped the Hilux and Fortuner’s four-litre V6 petrol engine in 2020.
Around the same time, Mercedes was burying the too-well-cloned Nissan Navara dud V6-powered X350d – incidentally, SA’s first seven-digit-priced bakkie. This left Volkswagen as the sole seller of six-cylinder power in the hot-hatch humbling (now previous-gen) Amarok V6.
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Then, in 2022, came the new current-gen Ford Ranger, now also kitted out with six-cylinder power in either diesel; or petrol in the 292kW Raptor – the latter of which again kicked the performance bakkie goal posts into a different galaxy.
Through countless and mainly cosmetically-driven special editions of Hilux and Fortuner, over the same period, Toyota soldiered on with the four-cylinder 2.8-litre GD6, which was boosted to 150kW/500Nm in 2020.
In 2022 the 165kW/550Nm Hilux GR-S came closest to six-cylinder-power territory, but crucially – and psychologically – it still lacked two cylinders.
As news of the then-upcoming V6 Ranger and badge-engineered Amarok broke, the writing was on the wall: R1m bakkies are here to stay, and their halo models are best justified with V6 goodness.
Which Toyota doesn’t have. Yet.
Related: Toyota Reveals Handsome New “EPU” Midsize Bakkie Concept
However, while the exact arrival of the next-gen Hilux/Fortuner is still under wraps – we suspect late 2024/2025 – the intended move from Toyota’s IMV to the next-gen TNGA-F platform currently used by the Land Cruiser 300 and Lexus LX, could change all of that.
TNGA-F allows the use of a multitude of engine configurations and body styles. So, there’s no reason for Toyota not being able to stuff the ’Cruiser 300’s available pair of sextuplets into the Hilux or Fortuner, drubbing Ford back into submission with 225kW/700Nm (against 184kW/600Nm in the V6 Wildtrak/Everest) produced by its 3.3-litre turbodiesel; or the 3.5-litre V6, which out-guns the Raptor by 13kW and 67Nm of twist: Challenge accepted.
As for the current line-up, 48V mild-hybrid power with stop/start will be added to the 2.8-litre turbo diesel engine early in 2024, which should release an additional 10% in efficiency.
A GR-S version of the Fortuner was also confirmed as early as March this year, which could just be the ticket for athletic adventurers that deem the Everest Platinum as too pricey – or posh; and entry-level versions too plain.
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