The impending adoption of new environmental standards may force Toyota to review its options for keeping the Land Cruiser alive, Automotive News reports quoting Keita Moritsu.
The Chief Designer of the new LC Prado let it slip that the model could go hybrid or even full-on electric to avoid extinction, but admitted that every approach has its pros and cons.
The new Prado – which you can see in the gallery and the video here – has recently gone on sale worldwide. In many regions where the flagship Land Cruiser 300 is not available, it is being offered under the simpler name ‘Land Cruiser’. Buying it with a hybrid drivetrain gives you a 48-volt electric starter built into the eight-speed automatic transmission and a 1.87-kWh traction battery with no all-electric driving mode at all. Keita Moritsu believes that a Prado mild hybrid is not going to be enough to keep the Land Cruiser nameplate alive by the beginning of the next decade.
As one of the trailblazers in the fuel cell technology space, Toyota believes that a hydrogen-powered Prado based on an electrochemical generator and one or more electric motors would be ideal in terms of driving range and towing capabilities. However, with the hydrogen gas stations being as sparce as they are, it may never become a mass-produced SUV.
Another major hurdle is that the TNGA-F platform, which most present-day Toyota and Lexus SUVs and trucks are built on, is incompatible with plug-in hybrid powertrains and large traction batteries in particular. This means that the Japanese automobile giant will have to either redesign the whole platform with PHEV compatibility in mind or come up with a completely new design. Whichever goal it settles on will take substantial time and investment to reach.