Confirmed! Electric Toyota LandCruiser family has on-road rather than off-road focus, could be on-sale as soon as 2026
A new family of electric Toyota LandCruiser wagons could be on-sale in Australia as soon as 2026.
Previewed by the LandCruiser Se prototype unveiled at the Japan Mobility Show last October, the new ‘soft-roader’ LandCruiser is a “work in progress” according to a senior Toyota engineer.
The electric LandCruiser will be sold alongside the famed hard-core diesel 300 Series wagon and the LC70 workhorse.
READ MORE: 2024 Toyota bZ4X pricing announced – be very afraid Tesla Model Y
International media reports have indicated a plan to launch the electric LandCruiser as soon as 2026 to coincide with the off-roader’s 75th anniversary and the arrival of a new-generation Toyota BEV architecture and batteries
“We don’t know, it’s a work in progress,” Toyota bZ4X chief engineer Masaya Uchiyama told motoring media at the launch of the brand’s first electric car in Australia, when asked about the electric Landcruiser’s arrival timing.
While he is now focussed on Toyota’s mid-size electric SUV, Uchiyama’s background within Toyota is off-roaders such as the forthcoming Prado 250 Series and the HiLux ute.
He says that Toyota is still some time away from being able to develop an electric LandCruiser with significant off-road abilities like the 300 and 70 Series.
So instead, the electric LandCruiser will sacrifice extreme off-road capability to be more comfortable on-road.
Just like the LandCruiser Se concept, the production version will not only be electric but abandon the traditional off-roader ladder frame for a car-like monocoque platform.
“I think that [electric LandCruiser] is capable like bZ4X capability, it’s not for the super rocky road,” Uchiyama said.
“The concept is to have battery EV model in the LandCruiser brand to secure the LandCruiser brand in the future.
“We have to have that multiple pathways thinking in the LandCruiser brand too.”
Uchiyama was not confident a true rock-hopping electric LandCruiser would make it into production before 2030, by when Toyota and luxury brand Lexus plan to launch 30 BEVs.
“We need to have more breakthroughs to have the LandCruiser BEV,” he said. “But in the future it will come, it will come.”
Also speaking at the bZ4X launch, Toyota Australia Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley was confident of how an electric LandCruiser would be received, while also doing nothing to water down expectations of a 2026 launch.
“We welcome any opportunity to bring those types of vehicles to this market,” said Hanley. “All these vehicles will become real and more visible in the future I think.
“[But] We don’t have those options available in January 2025 or January 2026.”
LandCruiser production originally began in Japan in 1951. It was then known as the BJ and the LandCruiser name was not coined until 1954.
Toyota Cyber Cruiser 😀