Toyota to test new electric pickup as it looks to fend off BYD’s surge in Thailand
As Chinese automakers like BYD steal Toyota’s limelight in Thailand, the automaker is planning a counter-offensive. Toyota is set to test a new electric pickup to fend off the incoming competition.
Toyota unveiled its first electric pickup, the HiLux BEV, nearly a year ago for its 60th anniversary in Thailand.
Pickups are a critical part of Thailand’s auto industry, accounting for around 50% of all vehicles sold in 2022. According to research from MarkLines (via Reuters), Toyota claimed 39% of the one-ton pickup market through September.
Thailand is also Toyota’s fourth-highest production center behind Japan, China, and the US. However, the country is quickly going electric.
Although Toyota, Isuzu, and Honda are still the top-selling brands in Thailand, BYD and other Chinese EV makers are surging ahead.
BYD, which entered the market last July, already accounts for over a third of EV sales. It also surpassed Nissan, Mazda, and Mitsubishi to represent around 4% of new vehicle sales, according to AutoLife Thailand.
Toyota to counter BYD with electric pickup in Thailand
Toyota Thailand built the HiLux BEV and sent it to Australia last month for testing. The electric pickup was tested by local engineers and “large-volume” HiLux buyers to provide feedback.
Toyota Australia sales boss Sean Hanley, who drove the EV truck, said, “It’s clear the concept vehicle’s all-electric powertrain delivers the impressive torque you’d normally expect from a diesel engine.”
Pras Ganesh, executive vice president of Toyota Daihatsu Engineering & Manufacturing, said the company was adapting its electric pickup to local conditions. It’s also ramping up electric vehicle R&D in the nation to keep pace with incoming competition.
Ganesh told Reuters, “We will first start looking at public transit.” He added a few electric pickups will be tested in Pattaya next year as “songthaews,” or share taxis.
Toyota is also considering testing other electric trucks for different uses, such as last-mile delivery.
Meanwhile, BYD is working on its electric pickup truck. The EV truck was spotted last month during the final phases of testing earlier this year with a big “BYD” logo up front, rugged fenders, and four doors.
A leaked patent last month gave us a closer look at the Ford F-150 Lightning look-alike. Reports suggest the electric pickup will be around 209″ long, more in line with the Ford Ranger.
Toyota showed off another electric pickup concept at the Japan Mobility Show last month. The Toyota EPU, or Electric PickUp, could rival the Ford Maverick as a midsize EV pickup.
Other Chinese automakers, such as Geely’s Radar, have already begun shipping electric trucks to Thailand.
Electrek’s Take
With the HiLux being the best-selling vehicle over the past seven years, it only makes sense for an electric version.
Thailand’s government wants 30% of vehicles built in the country to be electric by the end of the decade. EVs account for over 10% of total car sales, up from 1% last year. Other automakers, including BYD, are taking advantage of the transition.
Toyota is feeling the urgency in a critical market to go electric. Another top Japanese automaker, Isuzu, plans to release an electric version of its D-Max pickup in the nation.
The electric HiLux BEV will likely do well in Thailand, but Toyota will need to get a move on.
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GreenPower Motor Company says it’s received three orders for 11 of its BEAST electric Type D school buses for western state school districts in Arizona, California, and Oregon.
GreenPower hasn’t made the sort of headline-grabbing promises or big-money commitments that companies like Nikola and Lion Electric have, but while those companies are floundering GPM seems to be plugging away, taking orders where it can and actually delivering buses to schools. Late last year, the company scored 11 more orders for its flagship BEAST electric school bus.
As far as these latest orders go, the breakdown is:
- seven to Los Banos Unified School District in Los Banos, California
- two for the Hood River County School District in Hood River, Oregon
- two for the Casa Grande Elementary School District in Casa Grande, Arizona
Those two BEAST electric school buses for Arizona will join another 90-passenger BEAST that was delivered to Phoenix Elementary School District #1, which operates 15 schools in the center of Phoenix, late last year.
“As school districts continue to make the change from NOx emitting diesel school buses to a cleaner, healthier means of transporting students, school district transportation departments are pursuing the gold standard of the industry – the GreenPower all-electric, purpose-built (BEAST) school buses,” said Paul Start, GreenPower’s Vice President of Sales, School Bus Group. “(The) GreenPower school bus order pipeline and production schedule are both at record levels with sales projections for (2025) set to eclipse the 2024 calendar year.”
GreenPower moved into an 80,000-square-foot production facility in South Charleston, West Virigina in August 2022, and delivered its first buses to that state the following year.
Electrek’s Take
Since the first horseless carriage companies started operating 100 years ago (give or take), at least 1,900 different companies have been formed in the US, producing over 3,000 brands of American automobiles. By the mid 1980s, that had distilled down to “the big 3.”
All of which is to say: don’t let the recent round of bankruptcies fool you – startups in the car and truck industry is business as usual, but some of these companies will stick around. If you’re wondering which ones, look to the ones that are making units, not promises.
SOURCE | IMAGES: GreenPower Motors.
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While some recent high-profile bankruptcies have cast doubt on the EV startup space recently, medium-duty electric truck maker Harbinger got a shot of credibility this week with a massive $100 million Series B funding round co-led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
It’s been a rough couple of weeks for fledgling EV brands like Lion Electric and Canoo, but box van builder Harbinger is bucking the trend, fueling its latest funding round with an order book of 4,690 vehicles that’s valued at nearly $500 million. Some of the company’s more notable customers including Bimbo Bakeries (which owns brands like Sara Lee, Thomas’, and Entenmann’s) and THOR Industries (Airstream, Jayco, Thor), which is also one of the investors in the Series B.
Other prominent investors include Tiger Global, the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, and ArcTern Ventures.
As for what makes Harbinger such an attractive investment prospect, Dipender Saluja, Managing Partner of Capricorn Investment Group’s Technology Impact Fund explains that, “Harbinger has demonstrated a remarkable ability to reach significant milestones far quicker than other EV companies … the market has been impressed by their ability to develop large portions of the vehicle in-house to drive down unit costs, while remaining capital efficient.”
The company plans to use the funds to ramp up to higher-volume production capacity and deliver on existing orders, as well as build-out of the company’s sales, customer support, and service operations.
“Harbinger is entering a rapid growth phase where we are focused on scaling production of our customer-ready platform,” said John Harris, co-founder and CEO. “These funds catalyze significant revenue generation. We’ve developed a vehicle for a segment that is ripe for electrification, and there is a strong product/market fit that will help fuel our upward trajectory through 2025 and beyond.”
The company has raised $200 million since its inception in 2021.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Harbinger.
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There is no state more associated with cars and car culture than Michigan – and the state that’s home to the Motor City has just taken a huge step into the future with the deployment of its first-ever all electric police vehicle.
The 2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E patrol vehicle is assigned to the Michigan State Police State Security Operations Section, and will be to be used by armed, uniformed members of the MSP specializing in general law enforcement and security services at state-owned facilities in the Lansing, MI area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to research, in real time, how a battery electric vehicle performs on patrol,” says Col. James F. Grady II, director of the MSP. “Our state properties security officers patrol a substantially smaller number of miles per day than our troopers and motor carrier officers, within city limits and at lower speeds, coupled with the availability of charging infrastructure in downtown Lansing, making this the ideal environment to test the capabilities of a police-package battery electric vehicle.”
The MSP’s Precision Driving Unit is nationally renowned for its annual Police Vehicle Evaluation, which our own Scooter Doll participated in last year, driving the then-new Chevy Blazer EV Police Pursuit Vehicles in a game of “cops and robbers.”
In those tests, the EVs have impressed – but the MSP has been hesitant to commit to a BEV until now. “We began testing battery electric vehicles in 2022, but up until now hybrids were the only alternative fuel vehicle in our fleet,” said Lt. Nicholas Darlington, commander of the Precision Driving Unit. “Adding this battery electric vehicle to our patrol fleet will allow us to study the vehicle’s performance long-term to determine if there is a potential for cost savings and broader applicability within our fleet.”
Michigan joins other states like Wisconsin and California in deploying electric patrol cars and saving big money on fuel and maintenance, with many more out there and many more to come.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Michigan State Police.
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