Toyota Hilux BEV: Never far from home on this range

[00:00:03]Good day, Jarus Parkinson from the driven here standing in front of a landmark in Australia's transition to electric vehicles. This is a Toyota.

[00:00:14]It's a ute and it's electric, the Hilux electric SR, and it seems like an important moment in Australia's transition to electric vehicles. Just a couple of years ago, the coalition government was warning everyone that the uh labor would steal your utes and uh um things won't tow your boats. Well, I think this is about to sort of show that to be the lie that people always thought it was. Utes are the biggest part of Australia's market. They're so popular, whether it's the Toyota Hilux, the Ford Rangers, or other vehicles.

[00:00:50]But it's been the biggest challenge for making them electric simply because you want to throw a lot of stuff in the back. You want to tow them and you want to drive lo long distances.

[00:00:59]So the fact that Toyota have actually come out with an electric ute is pretty significant in my view. Um Toyota have not exactly been leading from the front in the transition to electric vehicles.

[00:01:09]They've only got one model out so far, the BZ 4X, which we've also recently reviewed, the upgraded model, which is the full um wagon version. and this is their first attempt at an electric ute and it's it's a pretty interesting vehicle and a pretty impressive vehicle.

[00:01:27]It's probably not going to make a huge indent in their sales simply because this ute is designed for a specific market. So it really is aimed at mining companies at other corporates with kind of backto- base operations.

[00:01:41]So the challenge Toyota tell us is really getting enough battery within the frame within the chassis and then keeping all the things that they value which is four-wheel drive capabilities um towing capabilities and load capabilities. So, this actually only has a 59 kWh battery and it only has range of 305 and that's on any DC, which is jokingly called Not Even Damn Close and 250 260 on the model with the tray. This is um this is basically the sort of the tub model and it comes in at about the range of 75 up to about $83,000.

[00:02:21]So, it's about $16 or $17,000 more expensive than the diesel model, but that might be okay because there's a lot of people who may think that there's value for money in that over time if you look at the total cost of ownership.

[00:02:39]These things get favored by sort of tax advantages both as a um commercial ute and as a battery electric vehicle. And so far, the sales have actually been better than what they thought. They were banking on about 500 sales in the first year. They look like they're going to get more than 600 in the um in the first six or seven months and they've got a few large customers. People like BHP, the Spanish company Aiona, um Newcastle Cole. It's going to be a fleet vehicle.

[00:03:06]There's been a few private buyers, people like Farmers.

[00:03:12]You're not going to buy this vehicle if you want to go long distances. You're not going to buy this vehicle if you're towing big loads around for long distance either. But if you're on a farm, if you're on a mine, if you're working for a company which is going to go back to base, then this seems like a pretty interesting proposition and an important moment in the market because we've seen a whole bunch of Chinese EVs come in.

[00:03:37]We've seen the Ford Lightning come in from the US. That was ridiculously expensive at $250,000.

[00:03:43]The Chinese EVs have got different reviews. Some of them have made up to the mark. Some of them are deemed to be okay. BYD came in with it Shark plug-in hybrid which was an interesting addition and that's been pretty popular which shows that people are really quite interested in getting um something which is electric, more fuel efficient, lower emissions.

[00:04:04]It's going to be interesting to see where Toyota go from here though because getting a bigger battery and a longer range and the ability with bigger payload is going to be the big challenge. So, it's going to be interesting to see what Toyota do next in trying to make this like a mass market vehicle. They're going to have to in increase the capacity, the battery capacity and the range and the payload and the towing and things like that. if it's going to be like a mainstream thing for the uh for the ute market. Uh they're saying that they really need improvements in battery chemistry. So maybe they're going to be waiting for solid state batteries and things like that. They can get more batteries into the space cuz one of the challenges that they've got with this ute is they want it to be four-wheel drive capabilities, which means having it within the chassis and protected, so you're not sort of hitting it with stones and rocks and things like that. And they reckon that's kind of given that sort of the natural limitation of what they can fit in that spot. But it' be interesting to see what their competitors come up with because there's big increases in battery technology. They're getting more efficient all the time. So in a smaller place space, you're getting more capacity and more range. So let's have a quick look around and um we'll take it for a drive. So there's a couple of options available in the um Hilux ute. I mean they're all going to be um twin cabs uh dual cabs. You're going to have an option of this tub or a tray. So, the tray comes in at about 75, but you got to pay for the tray as well. And that depends on what you want to use it for, what sort of size. The payload is rated from about 750 to 840 850 kilos, which is slightly less than what you get in the diesel ute, but still reasonably significant. The one special thing about this uh electric [laughter] car is that it's got a spare. Now, one of the things about electric vehicles is I discovered just recently having a puncture on the way back from Sydney is that they don't have spares and that's a bit of a hassle when you're caught in the middle of nowhere. Uh cuz you got to have someone bail you out. But this one does have a spare wheel under the ute. So, um so that's progress I think.

[00:06:07]Here's the charging port front left as seems to be the case with the um Toyota electric vehicle so far.

[00:06:16]Interesting that they've got little clips on them. I guess that's because it's going to be off-roading and might be a bit rough. So, um, they don't want them sort of flapping around the place and they got a bit of extra protection.

[00:06:26]Um, the charging speeds reasonably good.

[00:06:28]Look, it's a small battery, 59 kWh battery. Some of the big SUVs you got now over 100 kilowatt hours. So, it's not going to take you long to charge at a decent fast charger. Over 100 kW is going to be, you know, probably say 20 to 80% which is your normal thing. It's going to take half an hour or even less.

[00:06:43]AC charging going to be a lot slower, but you'll probably be asleep at that time. A lot of the new EV brands, if you look under the bonnet, you don't see much. You see bit of um plastic and the electric motors hidden away underneath and you might see a frunk, bit of luggage space. You can put an esky in or some other stuff. Um, not with Toyota and not with some of the other legacy car makers. They like to see here's my big motor, here's my electric motor, and there it is in all its glory. So, they haven't really sought to compact it and and put it in a smaller space and create some sort of storage space, which is okay. That's fine. That's their decision. I can kind of understand that with a car like the Hilux because um it needs a fair bit of oomph to do what it does and what it needs to do. Um but it's just an interesting concept. You kind of think that well maybe they would have space for something, maybe to put a few cables in, charging cables, but I guess if you got so much space in the yacht, then you're not going to be too worried about the storage space and things like that.

[00:07:41]But um there you go. So here we are inside the uh Hilux electric ute driving it at the uh entrance of a uh four-wheel drive course, off-road course in uh the beautiful scenic rim of Queensland. And look, the first thing you notice about this is that it's quiet. There's no diesel engine roaring or in the background. Now, we've already taken it for a four-wheel drive course, um, which wasn't a particularly challenging one, which was interesting enough, particularly for someone like me who's not really used to these sorts of things. For hardcore four-wheel drive people, this is probably not your car.

[00:08:28]You're going to want something with a bit more capability that can do the courses that uh, and accept the challenges that you want it to challenge. But for the market that this is geared at, it's still pretty capable. We did some reasonably challenging things. We did this course in a uh in a new Land Cruiser hybrid and that's a really capable car. It was interesting doing the same course in the battery electric vehicle afterwards.

[00:09:01]You don't have the engine noise, which might be one less input as you're sort of negotiating these roads, but it's just the silence and the capability and the torque that you get in the electric motor.

[00:09:13]So, when you're negotiating steep hills, going over bumps, going down into waterways, you haven't got a roaring diesel engine.

[00:09:22]You just got silence, but you've got that torque which can help you through.

[00:09:27]Now, the Hilux Bev has a slightly lower ground clearance than the diesel one, only 4 mm, but there's a bit of extra weight. So, if you're bouncing up and down, then that probably counts a little bit. So, you might scrape the bottom a little bit more than usual, which is why Toyota took care in protecting the battery in the chassis to make sure that it wasn't damaged by any roots, rocks, stones, or anything like that. And that they say put the limitation on the amount of battery they could actually fit into that space. So it's only 559 kwatt hours as mentioned before which doesn't give you a huge range.

[00:10:06]315 in in the tub version, 250 plus in the version with the tray.

[00:10:15]And that's not a lot, but if you're just driving it around a farm, if you're driving it around a mine, if you're just driving it back to base logistics for an energy company, for a renewable company, there some of the ones that have already picked up have bought, you know, dozens of these for their fleet, then it's going to work fine. And what's interesting, this has actually been tested in some of the mines in the Pilra over the last two years. 50 degree heat, dusty conditions, open mine pits, rough roads shown themselves to be perfectly capable. And that's really going to be the test because in those mining areas, the one of the first buyers has been BHP who have yet to make that transition to electric trucks. But there's miners like Fordscq who are going all in zero emissions by 2030 which means that all their electric hall trucks all their passenger vehicles and commercial vehicles like this are all going to be electric and all the power supply will come from wind solar and um stored in batteries for when the wind's not blowing and the sun's not shining.

[00:11:28]So that's a really radical change in the way that we kind of manage the power supply for these uh remote mines. They consume a lot of power. They use a lot of diesel.

[00:11:39]People like forsq use 700 million lers a year.

[00:11:44]They can actually save a significant amount by going electric because the upfront costs of these things are not so great anymore.

[00:11:56]And you just get the huge fuel saving because you're providing your own solar, your own wind power to top up the batteries, and then you got zero emissions and really low running costs.

[00:12:07]It was also interesting hearing the Toyota people talk about the safety aspect of these cars operating in summer in 50°.

[00:12:16]This is kind of like your safety capsule.

[00:12:19]So, they need to be dependable. They need to be reliable.

[00:12:24]Good thing about a battery electric is that it'll keep you cool. It'll provide you with a power source. You could put your computer. You could bought a kettle. We also drove this car about 60 km along the roads and it did pretty well.

[00:12:42]One of the guys that I was with was fairly skeptical of it just going, "What's this for? Why would anyone want to buy this?" But then he put his foot down, overtook a couple of cars in a overtaking lane, found there was a lot of power and just decided actually this is okay. You're not going to be able to do that with a diesel. diesel you just having that sort of force, that power that will enable you to do that. So, there's a fair amount that's very attractive about having an electric ute as opposed to a diesel ute. takes a bit of a mind shift for a lot of people, but I think once people get used to it, the fact that it is quiet, the fact that it's got this power and this torque, the fact that this has four-wheel drive capability and does pretty well, it's not going to be suitable for the most challenging ones.

[00:13:37]But if you're a fleet operator, you're remote, you're in a mining camp, you're on a farm, you're back to base logistics, then this sounds like it's going to be this really does appeal. And I think what's going to be interesting is to see how that evolves over time as battery chemistry evolves as Toyota find new ways of getting more capability, more storage into the batteries, more range into these vehicles. Because a lot of these utes are sold to people who want to tow vans, tow caravans, tow boats, and do long distances.

[00:14:13]Well, the technology is not right there for them at the moment, but I suspect it's going to have to evolve pretty quickly over the next coming years to see where we land. And of course, the challenge for Toyota is that there are other people making electric utes and learning quickly. And there's a big demand from a lot of companies, from a lot of fleets to protect themselves from soaring diesel prices to reduce emissions and to provide a safe environment for their workers.

[00:14:45]No diesel fumes. That's really important in underground mines. And it just makes the whole working experience much more pleasant. You're not going to break any land speed records and going from zero to 100 because it's a big car and it hasn't got a huge battery. The battery is half the size of some of the new BMWs coming out. 60 kW hours versus I think it's 140 kwatt hours of the new BMW i5.

[00:15:14]Extraordinary, but it's still got a bit of oomph. Won't tow your boat. Yes, it will. But I guess what we don't know is how far it will tow your boat. I think people with big towing capabilities are probably going to have to wait till they come up with an electric Hilux with a lot more battery capacity. There's a temptation to possibly think that a company buying cars like this because of their reduced range, because of their slightly lower capacity is just a vanity project. Look at me, aren't I green? And it's true, there might be a bit of that going on, but for many companies, it's important to have low or zero emissions. And increasingly, it's going to be important for companies to save money because as the cost of these cars come down and battery technology costs are still coming down, then it may come as some describe it a bit of a no-brainer.