2021 HiLux rumours abound, but is it a solid tow rig?
Toyota Europe has released teaser footage of the 2021 Toyota HiLux driven by ex-Formula One – and now Toyota Gazoo Racing driver and Dakar competitor – Fernando Alonso. Although the short teaser video of the disguised 2021 Toyota HiLux driven…
Toyota Europe has released teaser footage of the 2021 Toyota HiLux driven by ex-Formula One – and now Toyota Gazoo Racing driver and Dakar competitor – Fernando Alonso.
Although the short teaser video of the disguised 2021 Toyota HiLux driven by Alonso doesn’t give away much about the soon-to-be-revealed model, the camouflaged vehicle in the clip does confirm that the leaked images that showed up on our sister site, Unsealed 4X4 in April were on the money, with a more prominent grille, a refreshed rear-end with a reshaped tailgate, a new rear bumper and new LED taillights and turn signals.
As well as a facelift, it’s expected that the new HiLux, to be officially unveiled later this week, will have a revised 2.8-litre, four-cylinder diesel engine with, hopefully, a comprehensive resolution to the DPF issues that have plagued the current 2.8D HiLux, which Toyota patch-remedied by installing a user-operated DPF regeneration switch on the dash, accompanied by an instructional decal affixed to the driver’s door trim.
A Toyota DPF decal affixed to the driver’s door.
Besides the revised engine, motor1.com reports that the new HiLux will also score revised suspension geometry, but other than that not much more will be known until the official launch.
There have been rumours that a performance version of the HiLux badged ‘GR’ will be powered by a V6 diesel engine but at this stage, there’s no confirmation. Such a vehicle would obviously be the hero model in the HiLux range, much like the Raptor is in Ford’s Ranger line-up.
Worth noting, the towing capacity for the HiLux, at least in the automatic model, has been below the industry benchmark of 3500kg. That said, the manual model has been at 3500kg for more than a few years. Expectations are that the new automatic version of the HiLux will have a revised towing capacity of the industry-standard 3500kg, however, time will tell. We’ll keep you updated as more information comes to hand, perhaps even as early as this week.
But enough from us, check out the teaser video below…