Yahoo Autos How Toyota Was Able to Make Its $13,000 Future Pickup So Affordable
It turns out the $10,000 pickup truck is actually too good to be true. But only by a little bit. The production version of the Toyota IMV 0 concept, now known as the Hilux Champ in Thailand, starts at 459,000 Thai Baht, or just over $13,000 at the current exchange rate. On the one hand, that’s 30 percent higher than the price we heard from Toyota engineers during a brief test drive in Japan. On the other hand, it’s a brand new truck with a full bed capable of hauling 2,200 pounds that’s almost as cheap as a 22-year-old Ford Ranger on Bring a Trailer. As a further reminder, the 2024 Tacoma base price is $32,995. The Hilux Champ is still a deal, and to learn more about how Toyota pulled this off, we got some answers straight from Dr. Jurachart Jongusuk, chief engineer for Toyota’s IMV platform as well as regional chief engineer for Toyota Daihatsu Engineering and Manufacturing.
One reason the Hilux Champ doesn’t cost much is the utter bare-bones nature of the truck. This is first and foremost a commercial vehicle, closer to the chassis cab Ford F-350 box truck you rent at U-Haul in terms of features and amenities than anything Toyota sells to the U.S. consumer. Dr. Jongusuk told Road & Track Toyota focused on “Optimization of specification to only necessary items through extensive target customer input, through a simple but highly functional interior and exterior.“
Another reason is the relentless cost-cutting that went into the Hilux Champ’s development, going so far as to apply the Toyota Production System all the way down the supply chain.
“Purchasing engineers went to supplier manufacturing plants to study part-making in every process,” Dr. Jongusuk says. “They applied their knowledge from past projects to improve productivity at supplier level. They even visited tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers to do the production improvement activities to further reduce cost.”
One such example of these extreme lengths was figuring out that painting the inner and outer parts of the rear leaf spring shackles different colors was the most cost-effective way to make those similar parts.
The other part of the Hilux Champ’s price is that Toyota sells it in a less complete state than it would for a non-commercial vehicle and expects customers to add on to what is essentially a blank canvas. Dr. Jongusuk describes this as “Delivering the car at 70 percent finished, with the remaining 30 percent customized by the customer.”
That customization includes everything that can be grafted onto the back from a simple cargo box, to a full food truck. And, much like the upfitting process for commercial vans like the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and Ford Transit in the U.S., Toyota Thailand will connect you with a specialist shop for whatever you need. And to improve that affordability, Toyota Motor Thailand offers everything from a 5 percent down payment to 108-month loan terms, and some of the conversions can be combined with the purchase payment.
“Our ultimate goal was to make this car affordable and accessible,” says Dr. Jongusuk, “if people can afford their first car, which they can use to run a business and generate income, it will enhance their quality of life and provide new economic opportunities.”
That theme of opportunity through affordability harkens back to the original concept for the IMV platform, and also where the IMV 0 name comes from.
“The development was positioned as a return to the origins of the IMV, with the desire to make it not just a model change of the IMV, but a car that will help make our future brighter together with the people of Thailand,” Dr. Jongusuk says.
IMV is short for Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicle, and was launched in 2002 as a way for Toyota to expand into emerging markets with a global platform using shared engines and parts. It took over the lineage of the Toyota Hilux pickup in 2004, followed by the Fortuner/SW4 SUV, and Innova minivan, produced in Thailand, Indonesia, Argentina, and South Africa and built from knock-down kits in several more countries.
The inspiration for the Hilux Champ, however, goes back further. “The root of the idea for the IMV comes from the Toyota Kijang,” says Dr. Jongusuk, referring to Toyota’s original super-affordable pickup for southeast Asian markets from 1976. Also known as the Tamaraw, you can see the resemblance in the basic utilitarian form of the newer truck.
Like the Kijang/Tamaraw, the Hilux Champ is set to spread all over the world. After its launch in Thailand, the IMV 0 (possibly under a different name) will go to Indonesia and the Philippines. Neither Toyota nor Dr. Jongusuk has further comment on other countries, but Africa plus South and Central America are surely part of the plan.
Alas, that likely means the Hilux Champ will never make it to the United States, if you didn’t already figure that out. The gasoline and diesel variants sold in Thailand are Euro5 emissions compliant. Presumably bringing the gas engines up to U.S. EPA or the current Euro6 standard is possible but it, like everything else that would make this truck more palatable for even the most austere-minded of American customers, would raise the purchase price. But hey, eventually you can get one for that income property you’re planning to buy in Costa Rica.
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