What to expect? Toyota Land Cruiser 300 soon to go hybrid

With the pricing of its smaller siblings, the Land Cruiser FJ and new RAV4 now revealed, the hybrid Land Cruiser 300 HEV becomes the next point of focus in Toyota’s SUV product roll-out this year.

Goodbye ‘normal’ petrol?

Shown alongside the latter pair at the brand’s annual State of the Motoring Industry conference in February, the HEV is expected to follow the example of its Lexus stablemate, the LX, by replacing the conventional petrol-engined variant.

First revealed just under 12 months ago, initially, as a Middle Eastern-only model, the South African-bound Land Cruiser 300 HEV is unlikely to receive the same exterior changes as the former to better differentiate itself from the normal diesel-powered model.

In-line, therefore, with the Australian variant that debuted last year, the HEV will also only be offered in ZX and GR Sport trim level as the normal petrol currently is.

Hybrid V6

While specification is anticipated to stay the same, up front, the biggest highlight centres around the first-ever hybrid powertrain ever fitted to any generation Land Cruiser.

As with the Lexus LX 700h, the HEV uses the twin-turbocharged V35A-FTS V6 engine, but with the addition of an electric motor and battery pack.

The result is 336kW/790Nm, though in Australia and in the LX 700h, it develops 341 kW with torque being unchanged.

An uptake of 36kW/140Nm over the normal petrol and 140kW/90Nm more than the 3.3-litre turbodiesel V6, the amount of twist is routed to all four wheels through a hybrid optimised version of the 10-speed automatic gearbox.

Added changes

Marketed under the i-Force Max banner as a performance hybrid Down Under, recent mid-life changes across the Aussie-market Land Cruiser are also expected to debut in South Africa.

This includes electric power steering on the HEV only, a 40/20/40 split second-row, a 1 500-watt rear auxiliary power socket and a Torsen limited slip differential on the ZX grade only.

Likely pricing

Down Under, the Land Cruiser 300 HEV carries a price tag of $156 060 for the GR Sport and $156 810 for the equivalent of the South African ZX, the Sahara ZX.

When directly converted and without taxes, these amount to R1 848 905 and R1 857 790 respectively.

At present, local pricing for the Land Cruiser 300 starts at R1 581 000 for the diesel-only GX-R and ends at R2 225 200 for the seemingly outgoing petrol-powered GR Sport.

As such, expect the inclusion of the hybrid to come with a significant price bump over the V6 petrol, which starts at R2 169 800 for the ZX.

An official launch date for the HEV’s rival is still to be confirmed, however, don’t be surprised if an announcement is made sooner than later.