What Happened To The Toyota Stout Revival, And Is It Still Coming To Battle The Ford Maverick?

Key Takeaways

• Toyota rumored to be working on a small pickup to compete with Ford Maverick.
• Stout name trademarked by Toyota in Argentina, suggesting possible return of the model.
• Expected to be budget-friendly, potentially sharing TNGA-K platform with RAV4.

The rumored Toyota Stout is one of those news items that you’re either barely aware of or really excited about. Toyota doesn’t really have anything to compete directly with the Ford Maverick right now, and this light pickup from Toyota could be just the thing if you’re shopping in that segment but not dead-set on driving a Ford.

Unfortunately, a lot of what we have on the truck right now is sheer speculation. We do have confirmation that the project is in the works and that it will be intended for the international market, but official news on the Stout front has essentially dried up since we first had confirmation that Toyota was working on a small pickup. Here’s everything we know about the 2025 Toyota Stout so far and when we expect to get an update.

Ask most people to name some Toyota pickups, and they’ll probably list the Tacoma, the Tundra, and maybe the Hilux. The Stout is a little more obscure. It was officially retired from the Japanese market in 1989 after three generations, with the final run of export-only trucks lasting until 2000. The Stout was introduced in 1954 as the Toyopet RK, a halfway point between the smaller Toyota SG and the medium-duty Toyota FA.

The final version of the truck was a two or four-door RWD truck packing either a 2.0-liter or 2.2-liter 4-cylinder (mostly for the Latin American market). Outside certain export markets, the Stout was largely replaced by the fifth-gen Toyota Hilux in 1989, which would itself be replaced by the Tacoma in the North American market in 1995.

What Has Toyota Actually Confirmed?

We’re not just going on guesswork and rumors here. Toyota South Africa’s Senior vice president of Sales and Marketing, Leon Theron, issued an official statement in January 2023 urging the industry to “watch this space in the next three years for the LCV (light commercial vehicle) segment with potentially a small [truck] from Toyota.” Toyota has not issued any sort of retraction or correction in the year and a half since this statement was issued, so we have to assume they’re still on track.

As for the name, that’s not just our best guess, either. As we reported earlier this year, Toyota allegedly trademarked the Stout name with intellectual property officials in Argentina back in late 2023. If this is true, then whether Toyota actually plans on releasing the truck under the Stout name or if they want to claim the trademark just to keep it on the table, we’ll have to wait and see.

This wouldn’t be the only new Toyota in the small pickup segment. We’ve also reported on rumors of a Corolla-based pickup coming in 2027, and of course, there’s the Hilux Champ, a bite-sized, budget-priced version of the iconic Toyota Hilux launched for emerging markets in 2023.

Projections And Possibilities For The New Toyota Stout

If the Stout is intended to slot between the Hilux and the Tacoma, then it’s unlikely to be built on Toyota’s TNGA-F body-on-frame platform, which is intended for larger vehicles. More likely, the Stout will share the TNGA-K platform with the RAV4, which means front or all-wheel drive and unibody construction. Thanks to the Ford Maverick, we know customers are more accepting of this construction method.

As we’ve explored recently, an all-electric Toyota Stout feels like a longshot, as this would limit the truck’s appeal in places like South America, where drivers have been hesitant to part with gas and diesel. But, a hybrid option is almost a given, as the Tacoma and Tundra are both offered in hybrid variants. It also appears as if Toyota was right about EVs all along. The Japanese automaker received a lot of criticism for being late to the EV party, but with several other automakers backpedaling and suddenly pushing more money into hybrids, Toyota is sitting pretty.

If this turns out to be the case, expect to see the Hybrid Stout packing the same 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine as the new Prius Prime. Toyota has showcased some concept trucks that hint at what a new Stout might look like, namely the Compact Cruiser EV, a build for a possible small, rugged off-roader that would look excellent on a light pickup. As for pricing, we predicted a range from around $24,000 to $35,000. All we can say for certain is that it will probably be budget-friendly and priced to compete directly with the Ford Maverick.

When Should We Expect An Update?

We predicted in 2023 that Toyota would give us something solid by the end of 2024. The initial confirmation suggested a three-year window, which would make the model year 2025, which would make it unlikely for Toyota to finish out 2024 without an update. To get an idea of what a typical Toyota press cycle looks like, confirmation of the Toyota Grand Highlander came in 2021, and the SUV was officially introduced to the North American market in February 2023, with production for the 2024 model year beginning in August 2023. If this timeline tracks for the Toyota Stout, we would place our bets on an autumn or winter unveiling to build some hype for an early or mid-2025 release.

Projects get sidetracked, repackaged, canceled, and put on the back burner all the time in the auto industry, and all we really have confirmed so far is a Toyota SA representative stating that a small pickup is in the works. But, cancelations usually have to do with things like major production issues and corporate restructuring. The biggest hint since Toyota South Africa’s comments is the fact that Toyota is in the process of benchmarking the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz. Why else would Toyota do this? There are other smaller pickup trucks like the Ram Rampage, so there is definitely a small appetite for these trucks.