2024 Tacoma Hybrid

[TheNiceFamily]

Hi,

We've been watching a lot of videos about the new Toyota Tacoma Hybrid that's due to come out some time next year. We LOVE Tacomas and were quite set on a 2023, until I began really digging into payload/towing capacity/MPG. LOVE the resale value of Tacoma but, feel we want much better gas mileage, torque, HP and aforementioned payload and tow capacity. The 2024 Hybrid will deliver - no doubt at a price! And yet - if resale is good and as we plan to keep our new E19 and truck combo for many, many years, it may be worth it. Thoughts?

Also - sort of on-topic - has anyone noticed the TVs shown on the new Escape Trailer home page? Jeep and SUVs - nary a 3/4, 1/2 or even truck to be seen.

[mresseguie]

I'm living proof that an '07 Prerunner (4 liter V6) is capable of towing our 21C. However, 'capable' does not equate to ideal in my opinion. If all my driving were flat, I'd be fine using my Taco as the TV. However, many of the destinations I'm hoping to visit next year either are higher elevation or I must pass through high mountains to get there.

I'm spending a lot of time researching the 2024 Tundra, RAM 1500 (5.7L gas engine), and <to a lesser extent> Chevy/GMC/Ford pickups with the idea that I'm going to trade up to a bigger pickup before next summer - perhaps even by next month. I've already got two people who have expressed interest in buying my Taco. It's got just under 108,000 miles on it.

Michael

[salmo7000]

I’m looking at it as well but waiting to see what the mpg ratings are. I am totally spoiled by my 2017 Chevy Colorado diesel, which gets 30+ mpg not towing and 18+ towing my 19. At some point, it will have to replaced, and sadly, GM dropped the diesel option from the Colorado in 2022. The 2023 Colorados and Canyons with the turbo charged 4 cyl gas engine are very capable tow vehicles, but their mpg ratings are not good!! I just cannot stomach the 19 - 21 mpg they’re rated to get. Yep, I am spoiled…

I did look at the Chevy 1500 with the 3.0L Duramax, but it’s too big for me to want to drive. I sat in one at the dealer and felt swallowed up by it, even with various seat adjustments. If you’re not a large or tall person, these full size pickups seem huge. I really want to continue with a mid size truck.

Sooo, I’ll be looking at the Tacoma hybrid as a possible option for the future, although I hope to keep my Colorado for a couple more years, at least. Here’s hoping the Tacoma hybrid is rated at something upwards of 27 mpg and can tow at least 6,500 lbs. That combination should work for most Escapes.

[Chamberman]

Originally Posted by TheNiceFamily

Hi,

We've been watching a lot of videos about the new Toyota Tacoma Hybrid that's due to come out some time next year. We LOVE Tacomas and were quite set on a 2023, until I began really digging into payload/towing capacity/MPG. LOVE the resale value of Tacoma but, feel we want much better gas mileage, torque, HP and aforementioned payload and tow capacity. The 2024 Hybrid will deliver - no doubt at a price! And yet - if resale is good and as we plan to keep our new E19 and truck combo for many, many years, it may be worth it. Thoughts?

If it were me, I would wait at least one year before buying that new Tacoma hybrid. New body + new drivetrain,,,, there'll certainly be bugs and teething issues that are worked out in the 1st year or two.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by Chamberman

If it were me, I would wait at least one year before buying that new Tacoma hybrid. New body + new drivetrain,,,, there'll certainly be bugs and teething issues that are worked out in the 1st year or two.

Ok. But I have been using a 2014 to tow my E'21 for 7 years, so I am entitled to drool while waiting 13 months, 17 days, 6 hours.

[TheNiceFamily]

Originally Posted by Chamberman

If it were me, I would wait at least one year before buying that new Tacoma hybrid. New body + new drivetrain,,,, there'll certainly be bugs and teething issues that are worked out in the 1st year or two.

I hear you and it's 100% my main concern. I rarely buy the "first" of anything -I agree with you about bugs and teething. The only thing I take some comfort from in the news coming out is that a lot of the tech/hardware has been used on other models (Tundra, Highlander, a Lexus I believe) so is in some way proven.

It's going to be a very difficult decision.

[davidmurphy02]

Originally Posted by mresseguie

I'm spending a lot of time researching the 2024 Tundra, RAM 1500 (5.7L gas engine), and <to a lesser extent> Chevy/GMC/Ford pickups with the idea that I'm going to trade up to a bigger pickup before next summer - perhaps even by next month.

Michael

I've been very happy with our 2019 Ram 1500. Very smooth, comfortable and quiet ride. Tows our 5.0 like a dream over any terrain and altitude, gets 13-14 mpg towing. Love the Hemi, all the power you'll ever need. 65,000 miles with zero problems. Highly recommend the larger gas tank, sure makes life easy.

[Vermilye]

One thought to consider - almost all hybrids operate exclusively in the gasoline mode when towing, some even when driving at highway speeds without a tow. While you will get better mileage when not towing, particularly around town, they don't usually provide much improvement when towing.

[Chamberman]

Originally Posted by Vermilye

One thought to consider - almost all hybrids operate exclusively in the gasoline mode when towing, some even when driving at highway speeds without a tow. While you will get better mileage when not towing, particularly around town, they don't usually provide much improvement when towing.

This is correct. We own a 2022 RAV4 hybrid, not the Prime PHEV. From what I've seen the Tacoma hybrid will also be an HEV (small battery) and not a PHEV. The small battery in the standard HEV's will not buy you much of anything as far as improved MPG's when towing or even when on the highway and not towing. You'll get more grunt off the line which will be nice and a mild improvement around town when towing but you'll always be using the gas engine + battery when around town and accelerating. There'll not be enough power on battery alone to accelerate at any acceptable level. There's just not enough KWH's in an HEV battery to do so and the electric motors are smaller due to the smaller battery as well. Most folks are more concerned with highway mileage when towing versus city mileage anyway. On our RAV4 hybrid if my battery is close to fully charged when I hit the highway then it'll be depleted within 2 - 3 miles once I'm on the highway and that's with nothing in tow.

Our RAV4 hybrid shines in the city, not towing of course, with normal all city driving of 42 - 45mpg, however once I'm on the highway doing 70mph+ its around 39 - 40mpg which is very similar to the standard ICE only RAV4. You can expect the same from the Tacoma Hybrid, that being similar highway mileage as the standard turbocharged ICE only version of the same truck.

If you want to know what to expect as far as mileage with the new Tacoma when towing on the highway then look at some of the Ranger tow threads. The Ranger is about the same size as the Tacoma and its using a 2.3L turbocharged engine. I'd be surprised if there's even 1MPG separating those two vehicles when pulling an identical trailer at the same speed.

[Selkirk]

I am very interested in the 4th gen Tacoma, but share the opinion that the hybrid version might not deliver a significant advantage when towing.

For towing purposes, I view the hybrid option more as of an electric supercharger capable of supplementing the ICE with additional power when required. The extra power will only be available for as long as a battery capacity holds out. Once depleted, you have to rely on regenerative braking to recharge. The Tacoma's battery is not going to have a very large capacity.

I can see this being effective when the extra power is only required for short durations, such as accelerating on a freeway on-ramp or climbing out of a river valley. It would be less effective when that supplemental power is desired over a sustained period, such as climbing up a series of long/steep mountain passes.

I still think there's hope that even the non-hybrid engine will deliver towing capability that far exceeds the 2nd and 3rd gen trucks. As others have mentioned, there are a lot of powertrain similarities between the the current-gen Ranger and 4th-gen Tacoma . Any Ranger owner I've talked to seems to be very impressed with its towing performance. The supposed payload increase that comes with the new platform will be a bonus as well......

[TheNiceFamily]

WOW! Thank you so much for this really valuable information! Literally valuable - to the tune of probably $60,000CDN+. This is information that I'd NEVER get from Toyota. I don't believe they're trying to hide anything, just that they're in the business of selling trucks, not RVs, so they are ignorant (most by choice) of proper input with regards plusses and minuses of their trucks when it comes to towing.

I'd actually, just yesterday, put down a $1,000 deposit for a 2024 Hybrid Tacoma yesterday. I was running the reasons why (2023 v 2024) - increased payload, towing AND MPG! I think I lost them at payload. I'll be calling to get that $1,000 deposit refunded tomorrow, thanks to you all.

Now - the hunt continues. I'll look into some of the vehicles you've all brought up in this thread.

[Chamberman]

Originally Posted by TheNiceFamily

WOW! Thank you so much for this really valuable information! Literally valuable - to the tune of probably $60,000CDN+. This is information that I'd NEVER get from Toyota. I don't believe they're trying to hide anything, just that they're in the business of selling trucks, not RVs, so they are ignorant (most by choice) of proper input with regards plusses and minuses of their trucks when it comes to towing.

I don't believe that they're trying to hide anything either and yes, most of their salesmen are lacking in knowledge as to how their own HEV's/PHEV's operate. I found this out too when shopping for our RAV4 hybrid a few years ago. Don't get me wrong, there are unscrupulous salesmen that'll tell you anything that you want to hear in order to sell you a car, but by and large I think its mostly a lack of understanding.

I believe that depending on how you're going to use the Tacoma Hybrid it definitely has its place and benefits. As we already pointed out, these are going to be realized mostly when driven in an unloaded state and driving predominately in the city, i.e. stop-n-go traffic, then you'll see a huge benefit in the hybrid. If however you'll be using it primarily on the highway @ 60mph+ or especially towing on the highway, you'll not see much if any benefit in the hybrid option when it comes to fuel efficiency.

However there are some people that will buy a hybrid just for the added acceleration and not necessarily the MPG's around town. For our RAV4 HEV the option was about $1250 over a comparable model AWD ICE only version, but the HEV is about a full second faster to 60mph. When driven around town the car feels more like a healthy V6 than a normally aspirated 4 cyl. Remember though that the battery has to stay in a charged state, so this acceleration is only realized mostly around town when you're using regenerative braking to top the battery back off.

Once on the highway the HEV battery will drop down to about 25% capacity quite quickly and stay there (switching to gas only). The battery maintains this 25% level for when you need some added power for passing/acceleration. The reserve here is short-lived though. As an example, the 1st month we owned the RAV4 HEV we took a road trip through New Mexico and drove up from Alamogordo to Cloud Croft which I believe is about a 4k foot climb. I was interested in how the new hybrid would handle the mountain and how the battery would hold up. I had about 7 of 8bars showing on the battery capacity when we started the ascent up the mountain. Ha Ha, the battery lasted about the first 15 - 20% or so of the climb and the final 80 - 85% of the climb was completely on the gas engine and with no turbo the engine is quite lacking in power at close to 9k feet of elevation.

The small 1.5KWH battery in our RAV4 HEV will not get you far. As a comparison, the new Tundra hybrid uses a 1.87KWH battery so its in no better shape. I'm sure the Tacoma Hybrid's battery will fall somewhere in that capacity span between the RAV4 HEV and Tundra HEV.

One perk of the new Tacoma over the old V6 Tacoma though is the turbocharged engine will maintain power much better in the high elevations/mountains. When compared to the old normally aspirated V6 models the new 4cyl turbo should feel much more powerful in the mountains.

[TheNiceFamily]

Thank you so much for the detailed, thoughtful and quite understandable even for someone who isn't at all mechanically inclined answer @Chamberman! Very much appreciated. I shall share it with my very nice Toyota salesman and hope he takes on board what you're saying as well, for others, like me, who will be researching and whose main driving will be highway and towing.

[Marshall Escape]

I was discussing the new Tacoma with the Toyota salesperson and was concerned about the 2024 after hearing that the V-6 was not going to be available any more. I was told it would be a turbocharged 4-cylinder, and the optional hybrid motor was going to give it some additional torque but no help on gas mileage. I decided to continue on with my 2017 Tacoma, which has been working just fine on all kinds of terrain for towing my Escape 19.

[John in Santa Cruz]

I had a Tacoma 4.0V6 TRD 4x4 with the 6 speed manual when we bought our 21C, and towed it back from Dallas Texas via Reno then on to Santa Cruz with that, mid winter. towing it was fine. downshift a couple gears, go up the steepest grades at 45-50 which is plenty for those grades.

HOWEVER. We got on the order of 9.6 MPG for several tanks in Texas and NM, and never better than 10-11 MPG. with an 18 gallon tank, that means you're looking for gas every 150 miles.

AND, a 2008 Tacoma TRD Offroad extra-cab 4x4 stick shift had a 1200 lb payload.
(The crew cabs had a 1000 lb payload)... Driver+passenger+personal stuff was close to 500 lbs. fiberglass truck shell was 100 lbs. Tongue weight was 500 lbs. oops, barely room for the dog (80 lb labrador retriever), never mind camping gear like chairs, table, bbq, etcetc.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

...
AND, a 2008 Tacoma TRD Offroad extra-cab 4x4 stick shift had a 1200 lb payload.
...

Fingers crossed that this statement from a random Toyota dealer proves true in configurations that make sense:

"...increased maximum payload at up to 1,709 lbs on TRD Off-Road."

[Selkirk]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

I had a Tacoma 4.0V6 TRD 4x4 with the 6 speed manual

I own essentially the same truck (complete with a rear canopy) , only a 2014 model. Even when traveling solo, I know I'm running uncomfortably close to max payload with my E19.

The 1709lb payload rating is undoubtedly for a 2wd model. From everything I've read, payload capacity for a 4wd 4th-gen truck similarly spec'd to mine should be in the 1500lb range. That's still a big improvement. Combine that with a 15% power/torque increase which will be available much lower in the rev band, the ability to maintain that power at high elevations...and it should result in a much more capable TV for trailers in the 4000lb range.

The big question will be if the increased capability will translate into a significantly improved towing experience when compared to the 2nd gen Tacoma. I desperately want to convince myself that I don't need a 1/2 ton for effortless towing.

[John in Santa Cruz]

with the gen 2 Tacomas like my old one, you could get up to around 1500 lbs payload with a STANDARD cab and 2x4 and the V6. Yes, they made 2x4 TRD Off-Roads, silly as that sounds, they called them Prerunner.

[Selkirk]

Originally Posted by John in Santa Cruz

with the gen 2 Tacomas like my old one, you could get up to around 1500 lbs payload with a STANDARD cab and 2x4 and the V6. Yes, they made 2x4 TRD Off-Roads, silly as that sounds, they called them Prerunner.

I think the 2nd gen Tacoma with the highest payload were the 2wd "5-lug" models. I owned one prior to my current 2014. That truck could haul some decent weight....but only came with the 4 cylinder and very tall gearing. It got great gas mileage, but towing capability was non-existent.

[TheNiceFamily]

Originally Posted by Selkirk

...I desperately want to convince myself that I don't need a 1/2 ton for effortless towing.

^^^ this, exactly, for me/us.