Future Toyota Compact pickup.

There has been a rumor about a brand-new, smaller Toyota pickup truck for a while. It seems it is actually getting closer to production. And fast…

As we already know, it will be a unibody truck that would compate against the Hyundai Santa Cruz, but especlally, the very popular Ford Maverick. Ford sold over 157,000 of them last year and you know Toyota wants part of that action. Sooner than later.

The new truck would be based on a larger platform used for the Camry and the RAV4. Instead of the smaller one used for the Corolla. At least that’s the latest rumor. And it makes sense since the US could be its main market. And the maverick isn’t that small after all, at 200 inches long. Not huge for a US pickup, but still longer than a Ford Explorer and about the size of a 3-row Honda Pilot. A tiny Corolla-based pickup might be cheaper to build, but it could end up too small for our market.

Powertrains will probably be all hybrids. And by the time it comes out, it could use Toyota’s new 1.5 and 2.0 Liter engines instead of the older 2.4 or 2.5 engines used in their current hybrids.

Toyota will probably use the name Stout since it has been trademarked for a couple of years. And it does sound pretty good.

Currently, the Ford Maverick starts at around $28,200. The Toyota Tacoma’s base price is a bit over $33,000. If Toyota could actually undercut the Maverick, they sure could have a big hit on their hands…