A Toyota Land Cruiser EV broke a test machine that was meant to break the car

One of the biggest challenges for a full-range manufacturer like Toyota in introducing a 100 percent electric-only line-up is that unlike Tesla, Toyota cars are sold all over the world, used by customers who drive them non-stop as taxis in hot and humid and traffic-clogged Bangkok, to cross the scorching Sahara, drive through the desolate Australian Outback, and scale the freezing Arctic.

It is also why Lexus will become an EV-only marque by 2035, but not Toyota.

For all its promises are going green, even the United Nations themselves will not dare to replace their diesel-burning Toyota Land Cruisers with whatever biohazard gas-proof, shatter-proof windows electric truck Elon Musk promises but can’t deliver.

But at some point, even the Land Cruiser will have to go electric. The regulations demand so. The European Union has already passed the law to ban combustion engines after 2035.

Toyota Australia – one of the world’s biggest distributors of the Land Cruiser – is currently testing an electric version of the Land Cruiser 70, which is still on sale there. The project is done in partnership with global renewable energy company VivoPower and Australian EV conversion specialist GB Auto.

Nobody outside of the project’s working group has seen the car yet but according to Australian publication Go Auto, one electric Land Cruiser was being tested on a dynamometer inside a climate chamber, running at full load pressing down its suspensions, spinning its four wheels inside the scorching, battery-killing 50 degrees Celsius temperature climate chamber, before it broke Denso Automotive Systems car-torture equipment.

“The testing dyno is designed to break the vehicle, the opposite happened, and the testing had to be aborted,” the source told Go Auto.

“This has not happened in 26 years. Who has ever heard of an EV platform outperforming a diesel configuration in these conditions?”

According to the Denso Australia’s website, the climatic chamber is equipped with a 4WD-capable chassis dynamometer and can simulate “broad range of environmental conditions equivalent to middle eastern, tropical and cold climates; including a sunlight replication system that is able to achieve vehicle heat loading that is almost identical to true solar spectrum.”

The climatic chamber is used to test air-conditioning’s cooling and heating performance, radiator, engine and transmission cooling, as well as noise and vibration testing.

Toyota has not said anything about the electric Land Cruiser but last year, it tested a Land Cruiser 70 pick-up that has been converted into an EV, to be used in BHP Nickel West mine in Pilbara region of Western Australia, one of the hottest places on earth, where temperatures often exceed 45 degrees Celsius.

Toyota vehicles have a reputation for exceptional durability and reliability but it’s not empty talk. There is a reason why the Toyota Hilux is Australia’s No.1 selling car. Outside the comfortable environment of Melbourne, Sydney, Perth or Adelaide, Australia’s environment is one of the most punishing in the world.

Farmers (and there are plenty of them in Australia) who live far away from city centres, where the nearest help can only be reached by a helicopter, need a trusty vehicle. For them, having a car breakdown is the same as a dying a slow death.

If Toyota is to go all electric, it needs to convince customers that its EVs can match a Hilux or a Land Cruisers, because unlike Tesla fans, Toyota customers will not tolerate being used as beta testers, especially not customers who rely on their Toyota vehicles for work.

About 10 years ago, Mercedes-Benz wanted to show to the world that its G-Class is the world’s toughest vehicle and attempted to drive a convoy of five G-Classes across Australia’s Canning Stock Route – the toughest off-road trail in Australia’s unforgiving Outback, a place where everything that moves wants to kill you, if the fauna doesn’t kill you, then the hot and dry weather will.

The event quickly turned into a PR disaster, as every G-Class in the convoy broke down, including a supposedly military specs variant. An emergency supply plane had to be flown out to deliver replacement parts.

Years later, Toyota took a showroom-standard Hilux, loaded it up over 600 kg of supplies, with no spare parts, and had it complete the same route. Because that’s exactly what its Australian customers do all the time.

Also read: 10 years ago, Mercedes took the G-Class to Australia’s toughest route, only to be trolled by a Toyota Hilux

Toyota’s customers won’t accept an EV unless it is proven to exceed their current diesel truck’s capabilities, so don’t expect a production EV Land Cruiser to come soon, but it will be worth the wait.

Toyota’s unique challenge is also why EV fans love to paint the company as the bad boy that wants to slow down EV adoption by insisting that it’s hybrids are good enough.

“Toyota’s cars are used by customers all over the world.

“In deserts. In sub-zero temperatures. Even in such harsh conditions, Toyota’s cars sustain people’s lives and livelihoods.

“Toyota is a global company with a full line-up of products. We need to achieve carbon neutrality while keeping as many options as possible open for our customers around the world.

“That’s why, whether in battery electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, or hydrogen-powered cars, we are putting our best efforts into all options,” said President Akio Toyoda in an investors meeting earlier this year.