On Aug. 2 in Tokyo, Toyota unveiled the first hybrid electric Land Cruiser, a refreshed version of a large SUV previously known for its off-road muscle-bound chops, now containing both a gasoline engine and a small electric motor. Toyota, which had pulled the Land Cruiser from its U.S. lineup in 2021 after Americans began to balk at its $85,000 base price, said the hybrid would cost around $55,000, and that it would deliver the first vehicles in North America next spring.
Perhaps the loudest point in the event, however, was what Toyota did not say: The company would make neither fully combustion nor fully electric versions of the Land Cruiser, at least not yet. That is, while much of the auto industry has rushed to go fully electric as fast as it can, the Japanese giant would maintain its longtime strategy straddling combustion and electric propulsion.
