Toyota LandCruiser Hybrid delayed, Prado Hybrid still a no-show

The Toyota LandCruiser 300 Series Hybrid is arriving in Australia later than expected, as the Japanese brand continues to lag behind Chinese rivals in the large hybrid off-road SUV space.

“We’ve got the LandCruiser 300 Performance Hybrid coming, that’s coming just after the middle of the year,” Toyota Australia’s vice president for sales, marketing and franchise operations, John Pappas, told CarExpert.

Toyota confirmed the hybrid version of the LandCruiser 300 Series for our market in September 2025, and at the time said it would be launched here in March 2026 in a pair of model grades.

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Pricing still has yet to be confirmed.

Toyota is calling its electrified flagship SUV a ‘Performance Hybrid’, and it uses the same twin-turbocharged 3.4-litre V6 petrol-electric powertrain as the Tundra pickup, as well as the Lexus LX700h that has also been confirmed for Australia.

Per overseas specifications, the hybrid LandCruiser has total system outputs of 341kW and 790Nm, a 10-speed automatic transmission, a 1.8kWh nickel-metal hydride (NMH) battery, and fuel consumption of 10.9L/100km.

“The reason we’re launching this car is because there is no compromise on towing, on performance,” said Mr Pappas’ predecessor, Sean Hanley, last year.

“I think that’s important, because that’s the delineation between what we call the ‘efficient’ hybrid and ‘performance’ hybrid.”

While the LandCruiser 300 Performance Hybrid is locked in for a local release, a hybrid version of the Prado remains off the table for now.

“If it becomes available as a powertrain and we think that it can do the job for our customers, we’ll always consider it for our market requirement,” said Mr Pappas.

“Nothing to announce today on the Prado, but we’ll always be open to those things based on their availability and applicability.”

Mr Pappas‘ comments show there’s essentially been no change in Toyota Australia’s position on the hybrid Prado since its August 2023 reveal.

Mr Hanley said in June 2024 that this ‘performance hybrid’ was a “tangible alternative for this vehicle at this point” but Toyota Australia needed to “make sure it’s the right engine for the kinds of things people in Australia will want to do with that Prado”.

The hybrid Prado is currently produced in Japan like the diesel variants sold here, but only in left-hand drive for markets like the US.

Mr Hanley said Toyota would need to be able to sell over 10,000 Prado hybrids annually in Australia for the business case to stack up.

The hybrid version of the Prado – known in other markets as the LandCruiser or LandCruiser 250 Series – uses a 2.4-litre turbo-petrol hybrid powertrain with total system outputs of 243kW and 630Nm. An electric motor is positioned in the bell housing between the engine and the eight-speed automatic transmission, and there's a 1.87kWh NMH battery.

Claimed combined cycle fuel consumption is 10.2L/100km.

While Toyota already offers a large SUV with some electrification, the Prado sold here has only a 48V mild-hybrid system which doesn’t allow it to drive on pure electric power, even at low speeds, as can be done in the brand’s bevy of hybrid passenger cars and crossover SUVs.

GWM beat Toyota to market with hybrid versions of its Tank 300 and Tank 500, and has subsequently launched plug-in hybrid versions.

More recently, Denza commenced deliveries early this year of the B5 and B8 – Prado and 300 Series rivals, respectively – which are offered exclusively as PHEVs.

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