Could Toyota have dominated South Africa’s half-tonne bakkie market with a locally-developed Corolla single cab based on the Quest?
This will always be something of a “what if” question because Toyota South Africa actually did some development work on such a bakkie, some time back, but never put it into production.
We’ve heard about this project from numerous sources within the company during the past decade, but until now we have never seen an actual prototype.
This week, as spotted by Cars.co.za, YouTube channel Ryan Hawker Motor posted a dashcam video of a Corolla bakkie prototype on the back of a truck close to Toyota’s Prospecton factory. You can view the video below:
Judging by some of the other vehicles in the video (and no, we don’t mean that pristine white Cressida) this appears to be a fairly recent sighting. But we certainly hope that it’s not off to the crusher.
The Toyota Corolla bakkie project is not a new one by any means, given that the proposed vehicle was based on the previous-generation Toyota Corolla Quest, which was launched in 2014 as a continuation of the tenth-generation Corolla that first landed in 2007.
Toyota has never issued an official statement about the small bakkie project or why it was shelved. However the information we’ve received points to a combination of high development costs and economic uncertainty at the time having made the project too risky.
Being based on the Corolla Quest, the new bakkie would have been powered by Toyota’s normally aspirated 1.6-litre petrol engine that offered 90kW and 154Nm.
The price tag would likely have been quite enticing too, given that the Quest it was based on started at R174 900, which was a sweet deal even by 2014 standards.
Of course, this would not have been the first Corolla bakkie to come from the Prospecton plant as the company did actually offer a 1.2-litre half-tonner in the 1970s, based on the rear-wheel drive third-generation sedan.
And it may not be the last either..
Internationally it’s widely rumoured that Toyota is considering producing a pick-up version of the Corolla Cross, although such a product would likely only come to fruition later this decade, meaning it would probably be based on the next generation model.
This would inevitably be a double cab designed to compete with the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, however we could easily see it carving niche for itself here in sunny South Africa.
But as for the affordable workhorse end of the market, it would appear that Toyota SA has another trick up its sleeve.
As we reported earlier this year (full story here), TSA’s marketing VP Glenn Crompton said the company was strongly considering a new bakkie that’s “in the same space but more affordable than the Hilux”. He described it as being a solution for Africa and emerging markets, which leads us to believe that the vehicle in question could be related to the IMV 0 Concept that was revealed in Thailand earlier this year.
Either way, with the Nissan NP200 set to be discontinued in 2024, the local market is going to find itself starved of affordable bakkie options.
Question is, who is stepping up to the plate?
Also Read: Bizarre bakkies from around the world
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