Toyota Tundra

Toyota’s full-size Tundra pickup went on sale in Australia in November 2024. It’s a petrol-hybrid vehicle, but Toyota Australia’s September 2024 press release didn’t mention the words ‘petrol’ or ‘hybrid’.

Toyota Australia partnered with Walkinshaw Automotive Group to re-engineer the US-built Tundra from left-hand drive to right-hand drive, with the vehicle being produced at Walkinshaw’s manufacturing facility in Melbourne.

This is the first time Toyota has worked with a third-party organisation for such a project anywhere in the world and it was necessary because justifying right-hand drive production at the US factory would have required a commitment for at least 12,000 Australian-market sales annually. With a RRP starting at A$156 grand the RHD Tundra is unlikely to get a tenth of that.

Toyota USA has never been very interested in the Australian market, but the Tundra’s US sales have been mixed over recent years: dropping from 118,258 in 2018 to 81,959 in 2021; climbing a little to 94,429 in 2022 and greatly improving to 125,185 in 2023. At the time the Australian RHD project was initiated, Tundra sales were at a very low ebb and that probably contributed to interest in the market Down Under.

Toyota took its normal, conservative approach to the Tundra program, with prototype testing on Australian public roads beginning in September 2022 and, from late 2023, progressing to the conditional lease of 300 Tundras to private owners around Australia, as part of the final stage of the RHD re-engineering program.

Customers selected to be part of the evaluation program signed a Full Service Lease, administered through Toyota Finance Australia. For a monthly payment of $2500, the lease covered six-month/10,000km scheduled servicing and maintenance, mechanical repairs, replacement tyres and Roadside Assist.

Comprehensive insurance provided by Toyota Insurance, registration and compulsory third-party insurance were also covered by the monthly lease payments. 

The selected customers were required to report regularly to Toyota on their experiences and were barred from sharing that information on social media or with the press. 

By way of explanation for this extraordinary process, Toyota Australia’s vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations, Sean Hanley, said this was an important step in what was a world-first local re-engineering program for Toyota, to ensure the Tundra was perfectly suited to the demands of Australian customers. 

Toyota Australia said the US Tundra has been re-engineered by Toyota engineers working in close collaboration with Walkinshaw and uses many parts and components from other Toyota vehicles, including the LandCruiser 300 Series.

Apart from having the steering wheel and pedals moved to the right-hand side of the vehicle, the US-built Tundra Limited features several new or modified components: steering rack, instrument panel, firewall, headlights, cabling, harnesses, front seats, carpet and trim. 

The Aussie-modified Tundra was launched in Limited grade with a top-of-the-range premium version joining it in Q2, 2025, at an ask of $173 grand.

Both versions sit on the TNGA-F platform the Tundra shares with the LandCruiser 300 Series and are powered by a 3.5-litre, twin-turbo, petrol-hybrid, V6 i-Force Max engine, with 326kW of power and 790Nm of torque, driving through a 10-speed automatic transmission and part-time-4WD system, via a dual-range transfer case.

The non-hybrid US-market version of the i-Force engine puts out 290kW and 649Nm, but the i-Force Max, which adds a hybrid system powered by a 1.87kWh battery pack, gets 36kW more power and a whopping 141Nm more torque. 

We tested the previous-generation V6 petrol-hybrid in a Lexus RX450HL SUV and were very impressed with its smoothness and economy that averaged 8.1L/100km. Obviously, the heavier-duty role of the Tundra will increase fuel consumption; particularly when towing. The Tundra has a 4.5-tonne braked towing capacity.

Before you get excited about the 2025 Tundra, remember that this is a ‘1500 series’ US pick-up, which means a rated payload around the 1500-1700lb mark – only 680-770kg. It’s rated to tow 4.5 tonnes, because that’s what the US market demands, but has very little on-board payload rating: four people, a full fuel tank and 350kg on the towball and that’s about it.

That’s why this ute is listed in the Medium Utes section of the outbacktravelaustralia.com.au website, rather than in the Large Utes section where you can find utes with a tonne or more of payload capacity.

Aussie specs

The $156,000 Limited Tundra came with 20-inch alloy wheels; LED lights, leather-accented seats with power adjustment, heating and ventilation for the driver and front passenger; 14-inch multimedia touchscreen; 12-speaker JBL audio system; wireless Apple CarPlay and wired Android Auto compatibility, 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster; dual-zone climate control and trailer brake controller.

The $174,000 Premium grade added: unique grille; black alloy wheels, black-accented tailgate; panoramic moonroof; leather-accented seats with massage function for the front seats; heating and ventilation for the rear outboard positions; power adjustable steering column; heated steering wheel and 10.9-inch head-up display.

Those equipment levels are what you get in Chinese utes for less than half the price, so you’d probably need its heavier towing capacity to justify buying a Tundra – or any Yank ute, for that matter.

We asked Toyota several times for a Tundra press test vehicle, but we’re still waiting.