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Mystery Prototype Could Be Toyota’s New Land Cruiser EV Soft-Roader
- A Land Cruiser prototype was photographed standing beside the GR Sport.
- A Toyota Europe executive shared the image and called it a legend evolving.
- The photo points to the electric unibody model previewed back in 2023.
Update: Toyota Motor Europe has asked Carscoops to remove the image, noting that it was shared from a personal Facebook account. The photo has been taken down, and Toyota has not commented on the prototype itself.
A Toyota executive may have handed us our first look at the next branch of the Land Cruiser family, after the baby FJ Cruiser built for Asian markets. The camouflaged prototype standing next to the current Land Cruiser GR Sport could be the first Land Cruiser to pair an electric powertrain with a unibody chassis, and it most likely got photographed during benchmarking and development testing.
The mystery SUV appeared in a photo shared on Facebook by a Toyota Europe executive. The caption referenced the Land Cruiser and the Tahara plant, leaving little doubt about what we’re looking at.
More: New Toyota Land Cruiser Pickup May Break With A Long-Standing Tradition
The shot was taken at the Tahara manufacturing facility in Japan, which is home to production for the Land Cruiser 250 Series, the closely related Lexus GX, and the Toyota 4Runner.
The unnamed prototype is wrapped in camouflage, with cutouts for the headlights and cooling intakes. The team members posing in front of it block much of the view, but a couple of interesting details still come through.
The position of the horizontally arranged headlights and the lower bumper area are consistent with the Land Cruiser Se concept from 2023, but the prototype has a new opening on the nose. Ground clearance also looks slightly lower than on the Land Cruiser Series 300, though the overall height won’t come across as much different.
More: Toyota Brings Back The 1980s Land Cruiser 70
The 2023 Land Cruiser Se concept measured 5,150 mm (202.8 inches) long with a 3,050 mm (120.1 inches) wheelbase. That makes it 35 mm (1.4 inches) longer than the 300 Series, with an extra 200 mm (7.9 inches) between the axles. Whether the production version keeps that footprint remains to be seen.
Unibody Underpinnings
2023 Toyota Land Cruiser Se
Overall, the mysterious SUV could be similar in size to the Toyota Grand Highlander. It also rides on multi-spoke alloy wheels similar to those found on the luxurious Century SUV. The thread tying those models together is their unibody architecture (TNGA-K).
More: Toyota’s $28,500 Land Cruiser FJ Matches A RAV4 On Price, Not On Size
That same construction is expected to headline the fully electric Land Cruiser, which could use the e-TNGA platform or an evolved version of it. Switching to a unibody chassis will likely make this the best-handling Land Cruiser yet, though it will inevitably cost something in off-road capability against the ladder-frame stablemates like the FJ, 70 Series, 250 Series, and 300 Series.
On the powertrain side, and as Australia’s Drive reports, a battery-electric setup will likely outperform the current ICE and hybrid Land Cruisers. There have also been reports of a possible range-extender option, and the cooling intake on the front bumper makes that scenario sound credible.
The most potent Land Cruiser to date is the self-charging hybrid variant of the Series 300, with a combined output of 457 hp (341 kW / 464 PS) and 790 Nm (583 lb-ft) of torque from a twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 and a single electric motor.
