If you want to see how polarized our world is, just mention these two words on the Internet – EVs and Toyota. Two opposing camps will march forward, ready to defend their faith.

In one corner of the debate, you have the EV zealots. Theirs is a 'You are either with us or against us' message. They believe that hybrids are merely a tactic used by Toyota to delay a 100% transition to EVs. Make a down payment for an EV, plug it in to charge, and you are golden. At the other corner is the anti-EV resistance force. EVs are an ecological scam and a fire risk, they say.

However, if you were to spend time away from Facebook and do what Toyota describes as genba – the Japanese word for seeing things for yourself, at the location of the action, to verify your belief – you will understand that extremists from both groups are equally wrong.

The real customer has little interest in listening to preachings for or against EVs.

The real customer only wants what works best for them, whether it’s petrol, diesel, hybrid, battery electric, hydrogen fuel cell, or whatever the future comes out with. If it helps them to get more work done and make more money, they are all for it. If it doesn’t, then it’s rubbish.

This is especially true for customers of the Toyota Hilux – the No.1 selling car in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Australia, and South Africa.

In Thailand, overloaded Toyota Hiluxes carrying farm produce, towing trailers full of hay are the backbone of the Kingdom’s economy.

In Malaysia, people trust a Toyota Hilux more than their politicians.

In the Australian outback, cattle farmers only rely on a Hilux to protect them for certain death from the region’s harsh climate. While everyone else is riding on the sustainability buzz word, Toyota is building cars to sustain lives. Farmers in rural Australia will only buy a Toyota because they know if their car breaks down, help can only arrive in the form of a helicopter.

In Argentina, sales of the Toyota Hilux hit record highs even though the country is in a terrible recession, why? As the Argentinian Peso currency devalues, people are converting their cash savings into a Hilux, because a Hilux will retain its value better than their local currency, and the Hilux can help them make a living.

Toyota cannot continue to meet the needs of this large group of customers if it is to cave in to pressure from EV lobbyists and abandon its proven diesel engines. This is what Chairman Akio Toyoda meant when he says that Toyota is a full-line vehicle manufacturer, serving customers from all continents, and it cannot force all its customers around the world to accept the same electric solution.

Unlike passenger cars like a BYD or a Tesla, a Hilux is a car that human life depends on. For many blue-collar Hilux owners who make a living by donning gloves and heavy-duty boots, their minds don’t have enough bandwidth for unproductive pro-EV vs anti-EV ideologies. The best car that gets the job done wins their wallet.

The Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T are too big, too expensive for this part of the world. The Geely RD6 doesn’t even have 4x4, while the Maxus T90 still has much to prove.

So, in the land of the blind, the one-eye man is king, thus the Toyota Hilux remains unchallenged. If there’s going to be an electric pick-up truck to challenge the Hilux, it can only be an electric Hilux. Toyota is proposing a multi-stepped approach towards an electric work truck.

Which brings us to the three cars shown here.

Toyota Hilux HEV - the most realistic and practical solution

The first of the trio is a 48V mild-hybrid Hilux, the entry point to an electrified work truck. This model will soon go on sale in Thailand, with a new 8-speed transmission.

Inside, the new electrified Hilux has a new steering wheel and gear shifter taken from the Land Cruiser 250, with electric parking brake (EPB) too.

Since this a model that will go on sale soon, we have covered the specifics of this mild-hybrid Hilux in a separate post here.

Also read: First look: Different from Europe, we drove the 2024 Toyota Hilux with 8AT, 48V mild-hybrid

The remaining two Hiluxes are not for sale but they serve as a preview of what’s to come.

The battery electric (BEV) Hilux is very likely to be launched in the second half of this decade, part of Toyota’s planned 30-model line-up of BEV models by 2030.

The hydrogen fuel-cell electric (FCEV) Hilux is a little further along the horizon. it's powered by technology adapted from the Mirai.

This FCEV Hilux is developed not in Japan, but by Toyota Motor UK’s team, with funding support from the UK government.

Having (briefly) driven the Hilux (M)HEV, we hop into the Hilux BEV.

Toyota Hilux BEV - Not the United Nations' first choice, but the Thais love it

For the Hilux BEV, the development team opted for the single-cab body but admitted that regardless of whether it’s a double-cab or a single-cab body, its load carrying capacity will always be lower than a regular diesel-powered Hilux. That’s an inevitable downside of EVs, which must lug heavy batteries, taking up space that would otherwise be used for carrying cargo.

The Hilux BEV has a claimed driving range of 300 km (NEDC). This prototype is only a 4x2 (rear-wheel drive) but 4WD can be achieved by simply adding another drive motor in front. For reference, the mild-hybrid Hilux has a 1,200 km driving range.

AC charging capacity is at 7 kW while DC fast charging is at over 100 kW.

So, if the Hilux BEV carries less load than a regular Hilux, with just a quarter of the driving range, why would anyone buy a Hilux BEV?

For sure, the Hilux BEV is a bad choice for vegetable farmers in Chiang Rai or cattle farmers in Anna Creek, which is why Toyota offers them a hybrid Hilux, thus explains Toyota’s Multi-Pathway strategy towards carbon neutrality.

But there are still many usage conditions where a Hilux BEV is clearly a better choice. In Thailand, the Hilux is commonly used as shared taxis. These are not the Corolla Altis taxis that you see in Bangkok, but trucks with bench seats in the rear deck, commonly referred to by locals as songthaew.

In a regular songthaew, the combination of diesel fumes and open sides passenger area makes the diesel Hilux a terrible choice that locals tolerate only because there is no cheaper alternative. Toyota is currently doing trials with the Hilux BEV as a shared taxi, and preliminary results show that buyers overwhelmingly prefer to smoke-free and quiet driving electric Hilux.

We had a short drive in the Hilux BEV, at a makeshift course in the car park area of a drag strip in Buriram’s Chang Circuit, at the sidelines of Toyota’s participation in the Idemitsu Super Endurance Southeast Asian Trophy race in December 2023.

The Hilux BEV’s cabin had a shift-by-wire gear selector knob from the Toyota bZ4X. The rev counter has been replaced with an analogue charge level gauge.

No power output figures were shared but feels very much a like a 10-second 0-100 km/h car. Acceleration is as you would expect from an electric motor – fast and quiet, but since this a work truck, load carrying is prioritized over acceleration.

The standard Hilux’s rear suspension was modified to accommodate the BEV’s rear drive motor. It now uses a De Dion Tube setup, but the leaf springs at the sides are still retained.

As this is an unloaded single cab truck, the rear can swing out very quickly, but I was pleasantly surprised that it crossed a slalom course very well, for a truck. Better weight balance due to the battery pack certainly helped. The well weighted electric power steering (also used on the mild-hybrid Hilux) coped well.

Toyota Hilux FCEV - 3 mins to refuel, 600 km range, but still too expensive 

The Hilux FCEV felt very similar to the Hilux BEV, which is not surprising since it’s essentially an electric car without a big battery. Instead, it makes its electricity by using fuel cell stacks to mix hydrogen from its tanks and oxygen from air. The only emission is water.

This is the first time Toyota has allowed parties from outside their organization to drive the prototype Hilux FCEV. 

Inside, the shift-by-wire gear knob is taken from the Mirai. Despite having three 70 MPa hydrogen tanks underneath, cabin space remains unchanged.

Somehow, the development team managed to squeeze three 70 MPa tanks within the Hilux’s ladder frame.

Fueling the Hilux FCEV takes just 3 minutes, enough for a 600 km drive. That’s the strongest appeal of the Hilux FCEV or the Hilux BEV.

Like the Hilux BEV, this Hilux FCEV prototype is only a 4x2 but similarly to the Hilux BEV, adding a front motor to achieve 4x4 is possible.

On the move, the Hilux FCEV felt a bit more refined, a little bit better balanced than the Hilux BEV, but this could also be due it being based on the higher range double-cab body.

Through the slalom course, the Hilux FCEV didn't feel heavy, despite the weight penalty of the three hydrogen tanks. Directional changes were very well controlled, as was damping over a simulated rutted surface. The electrically assisted steering felt on par with the Hilux BEV.

None of the driving task demonstrated here is representative of how a Hilux is used in a real-world, so it won’t do much to convince buyers. There was no trailer towing or cargo hauling, no steep ascent / descent, or water fording, so this is at best, only a very basic demonstration that Toyota has electrified Hiluxes that can go, stop, and turn very well.

However the development also said that whatever the powertrain is, the goal is to meet customer expectations worthy of its Hilux name. Expect more to be revealed in the second half of this decade.

Although the Hilux FCEV is a clean solution that emits just water, Hilux buyers won't see it as anything more than an interesting science project. As a work truck, the Hilux FCEV doesn't do anything that the Hilux diesel cannot do, and hydrogen refueling infrastructure is grossly.

If you think charging an EV takes too long, ask yourself: how many hydrogen stations do you know of. So don't expect this Hilux FCEV to go on sale anytime soon.

Cost is another problem. Hydrogen is many times more expensive than electricity, so are the cost of FCEVs versus BEVs.

With scale, cost will come down but FCEV technology is at least 20 years behind battery EVs. To Toyota, this is the reason why development work needs to start today. Toyota doesn't believe that a 100 percent BEV-only future is a realistic one. EV zealots will laugh at this, but do you know who else is rallying behind Toyota? China, the Meeca of battery EVs.

Yes, the world's biggest investor in fuel cell technology and the biggest producer of hydrogen is not Japan, but China, the country that understands BEVs better than anyone else.

Why is China, with its huge lead in battery EV technology, adopting a Toyota-style hydrogen promotion policy? Because Wan Gang, the former Audi engineer and professor behind China's world-leading BEV-promotion industrial policies, doesn't believe in a 100% BEV-only future.

Despite its lead in battery technology, China is not adopting Europe's tough stance to ban combustion engines by 2035. Instead, China is aiming for a 50:50 ratio of BEVs and hybrids (which still use combustion engines) by 2035. This fact is often ignored by EV lobbyists pushing governments to adopt a BEV-only land transport policy.

As China builds its domestic BEV industry, it is also building a domestic hydrogen economy in parallel. In 2022, the Beijing Winter Olympics served as the world's biggest outdoor lab to test hydrogen FCEV technology, with Toyota as one of its key partners.

Outside of China, Toyota is trialling a waste-to-fuel technology where biogas from garbage like chicken manure and food waste are extracted to produce hydrogen gas as fuel for vehicles.

Thailand's CP Group, one of the world's largest food companies, owner of Lotus's and Makro hypermarts and 7-11 convenience stores in Thailand, is currently running a fleet of hydrogen FCEV trucks for its logistics. The project is done with the Toyota-led, multi-brand CJPT alliance for commercial vehicles, which also include Hino and Isuzu. 

Also read: Winning new friends - Toyota enters MoU with Southeast Asia's giants in consumer goods and construction

Whether it’s a regular diesel, hybrid, battery EV, or hydrogen FCEV – it is the customer who decides which is best. This very customer-first, not ideology-first approach, is the foundation of Toyota’s Multi-pathway philosophy towards achieving carbon neutrality in Southeast Asia.

Toyota’s role is to offer a menu of options. How Asia progress from here onwards is up to the people to decide. Whichever path they choose, Toyota will have the right vehicle them.