Next-gen Toyota Land Cruiser loses V8

Is it the end of the road for Toyota’s V8-powered Land Cruiser? A report suggests the all-new model will be powered by V6 motors only.

A report from Autoweek suggests Toyota’s iconic flagship vehicle will lose its V8 and the allnew Land Cruiser 300 Series will be powered by 6-cylinder engines. There will be petrol and diesel options, the latter with a headlinegrabbing 3.3-litre V6. Petrol fans can rejoice as there’s reportedly a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 in the works, and being a Toyota product, there’s a hybrid derivative expected.

What else do we know about the new Land Cruiser 300? We know the last Land Cruiser 200 is rolling off the line at the end of the first quarter in 2021. As customers anticipate the end of lifecycle for Land Cruiser 200, demand for these Toyota luxury adventure vehicles has soared. In some markets, orders for Land Cruiser have increased by more than 20%. The all-new model should be physically similar in terms of dimensions, but Autoweek’s report says it will sacrifice a small portion of its offroad talents in favour of a more luxurious onroad experience. The all-new Toyota Land Cruiser is expected to be revealed in April 2021, if the report from Bestcarweb.jp is anything to go by.

This Japanese outlet sums up the new model’s changes succintly. Assembled on the TNGA platform, the new Toyota Land Cruiser 300 will also see substantial revisions to the suspension, 4WD tech as well as the aforementioned engine updates. Want a Toyota Land Cruiser, but the 200 is sold out and you don’t want to wait for the 300? Can we suggest the recentlyupdated Prado, complete with a 150 kW diesel engine? - Cars.co.za