Toyota Tundra lands down under
Australia’s appetite for large utes welcomes a new contender: the Toyota Tundra. Matt Payne puts the hybrid-powered behemoth through its paces, from highway cruising to a surprising encounter with the Western Australian dunes, to see if it can carve a niche in our competitive dual-cab market.
Australians certainly have a love affair with dual-cab utes, and in recent years most would certainly have noticed an increased presence of the larger, full-size American variants on our roads. Ford F-Trucks have been on sale in Australia since back in the 90s, but over the past decade or so new players have entered the Australian market, with RAM bringing in its first vehicle in 2013 and later Chevrolet entering with the Silverado.
Toyota, however, have resisted the urge to stake a place in the Australian market with their large ute offering, the Tundra, which has been on sale in the US since 1999—that is, until now. Enter the 2025 Toyota Tundra, a new release for the Australian market, imported by Toyota Australia and, similar to RAM and Chevrolet, converted from left-hand drive to right-hand drive by the experts at Walkinshaw Automotive Group in Victoria.
The Tundra is powered by a 3.5L twin-turbo V6 petrol engine but also features the Toyota i-FORCE MAX hybrid powertrain sandwiched between this and the 10-speed automatic transmission, which is a magnet synchronous motor powered by a 288V nickel-metal hydride battery. Combined, the powertrain outputs 326 kW and a mammoth 790 Nm of torque, class-leading torque figures, but its power is not as impressive as the comparably priced RAM LTD Hurricane High Output, which comes in at a whopping 403 kW.
The hybrid design is purported to improve fuel economy, helping to get the vehicle moving from a standstill and then driving the vehicle completely when coasting down hills and on flat sections of road. As soon as additional torque is required, the petrol engine is designed to instantly pick up the slack. This engine variant has already found popularity amongst the US customer base since being introduced, with the i-FORCE MAX powertrain variant reportedly accounting for a significant portion of sales in 2024, with over 37,000 units sold—a 22.1% increase from the previous year.
I have to admit, as a 4WD enthusiast, the large American-style utes have never appealed to me purely due to their sheer size not working well with Australian tracks and the longer wheelbase not being well-suited to off-road conditions. This said, when Toyota WA suggested that I take the new Tundra for a couple of weeks to put it through its paces, my interest was certainly piqued, especially knowing that the 3.5L twin-turbo engine under the bonnet is related to the one found in the Lexus GX 550 and Lexus LX 600 (not the MAX version, though).
Arriving at Toyota HQ in Kewdale, as expected, the increased size of the vehicle compared to, say, a HiLux was immediately evident. Coming in at just under 6m long and ~2m wide, the ute is roughly 600mm longer and 200mm wider than a typical dual-cab ute. Ground clearance, however, instantly caught my eye as low, coming in at 216mm, and considering the longer wheelbase (3.7m), I was worried about this for off-road use (more on this later). Visually, the Tundra is an impressive ute. It sits on large 20-inch alloys, has a big front-end grille, and features a bonnet that steps up from the main body with additional raised i-FORCE MAX emblems on either side.
In Australia, the Tundra comes in a single trim spec—Limited. It’s certainly not light on interior features, though. Opening the driver’s door, your eyes are immediately drawn to the massive 14-inch screen perched in the centre of the dash. This comes standard with wireless Apple CarPlay/wired Android Auto, and connecting my phone was a simple affair.
One word to describe the cabin of the Tundra is spacious. The amount of room in the cabin is amazing; three adults could easily sit comfortably in the back seat with legroom similar to what would normally be found in a standard dual-cab ute in the front. Storage is plentiful with a huge centre console featuring large cup holders and additional storage in the door trims. Front seats are firm yet comfortable; however, they are not as plush as those in the new J250 Prado Altitude that I reviewed last issue—I found they did lack some side (upper back) bolstering. Both front seats feature heating and ventilation and have 8-way power adjustment included. The back seats are also quite comfortable, but the backrest is still fairly upright, something common to many dual-cab utes, and could have perhaps had some contouring worked in, similar to that found on the Ineos Grenadier.
The dash is a clean, modern design that fortunately still includes buttons for frequently used features such as climate control, meaning that you don’t need to go searching through screen menus all the time. The instrument cluster is a 12.3-inch digital display that is easy to read, providing all the usual metrics you would expect, as well as boost pressure (iFORCE) and battery charge/current load (MAX).
Safety-wise, you get the usual modern inclusions like blind-spot assist, rear cross-traffic alert, and an amazingly clear 360-degree camera; the blind-spot assist, however, is visual only. It would have been great to also get an audible alert, as in a vehicle this size, the blind spots are larger, and without the audible assist, it requires you to pay more attention to the small symbol integrated into the mirrors when changing lanes.
So let’s get to the good part—the engine! Pushing the start button, you could be forgiven for thinking the Tundra has a V8 under the bonnet. The engine has a distinct V8 grumble as it roars to life, and you have three drive modes at your command to extract different throttle response and transmission shifting patterns from it (Sport, Normal and Eco). Even in Eco mode, the amount of power available is incredible, and a small amount of accelerator input results in punchy acceleration coupled with a beautiful, throaty engine note. With more accelerator input, the twin turbo intake noise can be heard as well.
The amazing thing here, though, is that road noise is kept to an absolute minimum inside the cabin, so you really only hear the engine doing its thing as you bring the car up to speed, and by the time you hit the speed limit, it feels like the car is going slow—if I owned one of these, I would need to keep my eye on the speedometer a lot! The 10-speed automatic transmission works beautifully with the engine, never searching for gears and shifting smoothly in-between until at cruising speed.
The real icing on the cake for me, though, was the hybrid electric motor that is sandwiched in between the transmission and the petrol engine. The way this works is amazing, especially in a car of this size (2.8T). You can feel the electric motor get the Tundra moving upon initial acceleration before the petrol engine takes over, a transition that is absolutely seamless. Then, when coasting down a decline, the petrol engine shuts off (again, no noise at all), and the battery starts to charge through regenerative braking.
You then reach the base of the decline, and if the road is flat, the Tundra then cruises along solely on the electric motor alone; it really is a surreal feeling driving such a large vehicle with effectively zero noise at all. Then, as soon as additional load is felt/power is required, the twin-turbo is back on as if it had just nodded off for a momentary nap. I REALLY hope Toyota put this drivetrain into a 300 series; it is by far the best setup I have driven to date.
The ride quality is fantastic, with the double wishbone front coilovers and four-link solid axle rear (both with stabiliser bars), coupled with the long wheelbase, effortlessly absorbing road surface imperfections. There is a little bit of body roll when throwing the car harder into turns, but nothing like, say, a twin solid axle 4WD.
The full-size American utes are heavily marketed towards those who tow, so I was keen to see how the Tundra handled my 2T boat. The Tundra is rated to tow 4.5T, and as you may expect, it didn’t even break a sweat moving roughly half of this, so much so that I would genuinely say that unless I looked in the side mirrors, I wouldn’t have known there was a boat on the back. Speaking of which, the side mirrors are more than sufficient for towing, giving great vision of the boat/trailer, and the offset view (driver’s side close, passenger side distance) integrated into them is fantastic.
Reversing my boat towards the water at the boat ramp, I was prompted to disengage rear cross traffic alert as soon as reverse was engaged, which was great and a feature the new Prado could really use. Similar to the 79 series and Prado, there are tow-specific modes integrated into the Tundra, with a Tow Haul button on the dash that is recommended for towing loads under 2,268kg and a Tow + Drive mode that is designed for heavier trailers above this weight up to the 4.5T limit. Both of these modes alter throttle response and transmission shifting patterns, with the former designed to give more instant acceleration, while the latter is intended to hold gears longer, which enables better control during both uphill and downhill hauling with heavy loads.
I didn’t feel the need to engage either of these modes during my tow test, though—a testament to the sheer power on offer from the Tundra’s engine. Speaking of a 4.5T limit, as the Tundra weighs just under 2.8T, its payload is only 758kg, so assuming a towball down weight of ~350kg, that only leaves you 408kg, not including passengers/gear/accessories—just something to consider if looking at purchasing.
The Tundra really is designed for long-distance highway driving, so to put it through its paces in its home environment, I gave it an ~350km run on Indian Ocean Drive to Lancelin, back down to Safety Bay via the freeway, and then back home to the northern suburbs. This is where the Tundra really shone. The marriage of a quiet cabin, comfortable suspension, and the hybrid powertrain just provided an amazing driving experience. When I get the chance to tow a large boat/caravan around Australia, this is the sort of vehicle I would want for the job. I could easily see 10-12 hr days behind the wheel being something you could manage without substantial fatigue on the body.
So, are there any real negatives to this vehicle? Enter my off-road evaluation. Normally, I would test off-road capability on typical WA sand tracks or out at Julimar for some rocky/rutted hill climbing. Given the size of the Tundra, coupled with relatively low ground clearance (216mm), I opted for the safer (well, I thought it would be) option of the Lancelin sand dunes, where I could avoid pin striping.
Engaging 4H, I opted to air down to 20 psi, as any further than this looked like the rim might bottom out during sidewall flex; 20-inch rims really are not designed for any serious off-road work. Entering the off-road area at the base of the dunes, vibration from the chopped-up section of tracks was very noticeable in the cabin, almost certainly due to the wheel size; however, once on untracked sand, the Tundra punched along without a drama; it scaled dunes with ease—at first.
However, the long wheelbase coupled with low ground clearance quickly caught me off guard. Even despite walking the approach to a mild dune descent and figuring it would be fine to drive, the relatively minor undulations in the dune had the Tundra bellied out just as I came onto the downward face. Despite using four MaxTrax and digging out a mammoth amount of sand, I wasn’t able to get the vehicle out under its own steam in 4L.
At this point I also realised just how wide the car was, as even using my legs at full extension to remove sand from the undercarriage, I still could not get all the way under the vehicle. The Tundra only comes with a limited slip differential in the rear, and this certainly didn’t help my recovery effort—a rear diff lock may have made a difference in the initial stages. In the end I was lucky Robert from Lancelin 4WD Sand Dunes Adventure Tours was nearby, and for a very reasonable fee his 4WD bus had the Tundra out in a very controlled manner in the space of five minutes.
Everything that makes the Tundra an incredible vehicle on-road seemingly works against it off-road—20-inch tyres, low ground clearance, and a long wheelbase. But the reality is, if you are buying the vehicle for serious off-road work, then you are buying the wrong car. The Tundra will eat up normal beach driving with stupendous amounts of power on tap to power through soft sand. However, you just need to be very wary of its limitations when traversing uneven ground. Airing back up after all of this, I should note that the Tundra’s cranking battery is located under the rear passenger seat, and the access plate requires a pry tool to open. I had nothing on me, so I managed to use the rear seat belt buckle, but this may be something Toyota could look at remedying in the future—either that or a positive and negative post placed under the bonnet to tap into this power source.
So, after the above adventure, how much fuel did the Tundra use? This is where I was pleasantly surprised! After nearly 350km of driving, including the sand dune test, some city stop/start driving, and probably ~300km of highway cruising at 100 km/h, the Tundra used an amazing 10.06 L per 100km at the pump. This was in Eco mode (which, as I mentioned before, still gives you power on tap), and by this time I had really learned how to finesse the car throttle-wise to get the most out of the electric motor. Around town in day-to-day stop/start driving, the computer was suggesting ~13-14 L/100 km, which all-in-all is also pretty good.
Overall, I was incredibly impressed with the Tundra, and to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect prior to the test drive. The vehicle is too big and low for any serious off-road work and is definitely priced at the upper end of the full-size ute segment ($169,579 inc. on-roads) for what is included (I was really surprised you don’t even get a rear diff lock), but if you are looking for the ultimate towing/touring vehicle to cover big distances on sealed and unsealed roads in absolute comfort with amazing fuel economy and the ability to power through typical relatively level beach 4W driving, then this could well be the vehicle of your dreams.
By Matt Payne
This review can be found in the 134th edition of Western 4W Driver at issuu.com
