Toyota Knows Few Japanese Buyers Want A LHD Made-In-America Tundra Pickup, But It’s Selling It There Anyway

Typically, when we predict of forbidden fruit, we’re eager about the cool cars sold in other countries that we do not get within the U.S., however it’s easy to forget that the U.S. gets loads of cars that are not sold in other countries, too. So it’s pretty significant that Toyota is planning to supply the full-size Tundra in Japan, together with the Highlander and, eventually, the Camry. Why anyone in Japan would want an America-sized pickup truck, I do not know, but possibly Toyota sees an untapped market that is larger than you’d expect. Except the brand doesn’t expect to sell many in any respect. 

How do I do know this? I wish I could let you know I got the knowledge from a highly classified source inside Toyota, but I’m not nearly charming enough to drag that off. As an alternative, I simply read the press release, where Toyota spelled it out in plain language. In keeping with the discharge from Toyota Global, the Japanese automaker expects to sell 80 Tundras a month in its home market, while Highlander sales are predicted to be half that. Doing slightly back-of-the-napkin math, that works out to fewer than 1,500 sales a 12 months. For comparison, Toyota sold 12,949 Tundras within the U.S. last month alone. 

Because Toyota knows there’s principally no demand for a full-size pickup truck or an aging three-row crossover in Japan, anyone who buys one will only have a single trim option available. In the event that they go along with the Tundra, they’ll get the 1794 Edition, and if it is the Highlander, they’ll get the Limited ZR Hybrid. Want something different? You’ll need to seek out it elsewhere. 

So far as pricing goes, Toyota plans to sell the Tundra 1794 Edition for ¥12,000,000 and the Highlander Limited ZR Hybrid for ¥8,600,000. At current conversion rates, that is about $75,500 for the Tundra and $54,16 for the Highlander, but you sometimes get a greater picture of what something really costs whenever you compare it to what else you’ll be able to buy in the identical country for similar money. Here’s what just a few notable base-model Toyotas cost in Japanese yen:

• Toyota Corolla – ¥2,279,200
• Toyota Crown Signia – ¥5,150,000
• Toyota GR86 – ¥2,936,000
• Toyota Prius – ¥2,769,800
• Toyota RAV4 – ¥4,500,000
• Toyota Land Cruiser 300 – ¥5,252,500
• Toyota Century Sedan – ¥23,000,000

In fact, they don’t seem to be exactly direct competitors, but you may load up a Land Cruiser 300, the full-fat version we do not get here within the U.S., and still pay about 40% lower than if you happen to bought a Highlander. Meanwhile, the Tundra is shaping as much as be the costliest non-Century vehicle that Toyota sells in Japan. Oh, and there is also one other factor working against Tundra and Highlander sales — they’ll all be wrong-hand drive. 

Yes, since Toyota already expects to seek out essentially zero buyers at home, it will probably’t justify the associated fee to convert either vehicle to right-hand drive. Meaning anyone who does buy a Tundra to flex on their neighbors may have to learn how you can drive their giant-ass Buc-ee’s truck while sitting on the flawed side of the automobile. That is hard enough to get used to while driving a tiny Japanese or British automobile on America’s wide streets, but a full-size pickup truck on narrow Japanese roads? That seems like a special level of hell. 

Nonetheless, these vehicles were never really meant to sell. Toyota’s doing this specifically to make Trump completely satisfied. And considering his Iran boondoggle just kicked off a worldwide energy crisis that is also hurting Japan, I’m not even convinced Toyota will hit its already-low projections beyond possibly the primary month or two. Before the war, buying a left-hand-drive Tundra might need been a flex in some circles, but now? With the federal government fighting hard to maintain gas under ¥200 a liter, how many individuals who would have bought one before the war not need to be seen driving a logo of America and its countless cycle of wars within the Middle East?