Will Toyota Tundra trump Ford F-150?

Toyota Australia may be late to the pick-up truck party with its Texan-built, Melbourne-modified Toyota Tundra, but it’s just fired a major warning shot over the heads of its larger-than-life US rivals.

The Tundra will be on sale in 2025 and if it lives up to Toyota’s fastidious quality, durability and reliability standards during testing in the meantime – the fourth factory-backed full-size pick-up truck to be converted from left- to right-hand drive locally after the RAM 1500, Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 is being dubbed as a ‘premium towing machine’ and claimed to set new standards in its class.

“We’re confident this program sets a new benchmark for the re-engineering of a full-size pick-up truck from left-hand drive to right-hand drive,” said Toyota Australia’s senior manager of vehicle evaluation and regulations and the project’s engineering lead, Ray Munday, firing a blatant broadside at rivals including Australia’s current pick-up king, the RAM 1500.

Just one model grade – the road-biased Toyota Tundra Limited – will be offered in Australia, along with one engine: the top-spec i-Force MAX hybrid powertrain, which matches its mainstream rivals for 4.5-tonne towing capacity and trumps them for power and torque.

Combining a 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 with an electric motor and small battery pack, the hybrid powertrain belts out 326kW and 790Nm and is matched as standard to a 10-speed automatic transmission and part-time 4x4 system.

An electronic trailer brake controller is standard too, but the Tundra has the lowest payload of the four factory-backed big utes, at 758kg. This falls short of the Silverado’s 760kg, the RAM’s 833kg and F-150’s 953kg.

While the RHD Toyota Tundra has not been officially green-lit for sale in Australia, we understand that will be a mere a formality following a 12-month test phase involving 300 Tundra utes leased to customers to iron out the kinks, before customer sales officially commence in early 2025 via Toyota dealerships nationally.

Pricing won’t be confirmed until closer to its launch date, but expect the Tundra to be considerably more expensive than its rivals, potentially starting above $140,000.

Toyota has confirmed that the 280 customers and 20 Toyota Australia staff who will be guinea pigs for the project will pay a full service lease costing $2500 per month, which covers registration, insurance, service and all mechanical repairs.

Although Toyota has handed its arch-rivals – chief among them the Ford F-150, the world’s top-selling pick-up for the last 46 years – a considerable head start in the market, it has full confidence the Tundra will exceed expectations.