The new flagship of the Toyota HiLux range was caught on camera in Thailand with little disguise. Here’s what we’ve found so far.
This is our first look at the 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport – the flagship Ute, set to replace the Toyota HiLux Rugged X, the top of the lineup, in Australian showrooms next year.
Although other versions of the Toyota HiLux GR Sport were launched in Europe, South Africa and Japan last year, the 2023 edition looks set to be the most aggressive yet – and it will be coming to Australia for the first time.
A series of photos posted to social media platform Instagram by the highly respected Kurdistan_Automotive_Blog – which has a reputation for posting genuine spy photos – show a lightly camouflaged Toyota HiLux being driven on a main road in Thailand (where examples of the HiLux sold in Australia).
From the images, it appears that the Toyota HiLux tested has the same wider track and longer wheel arch extensions that debuted in Australia in recent months with the other flagship of the range – the Toyota HiLux Rogue.
The wider body – and footprint – coincided with a major overhaul of the front and rear suspension, 70mm wider axles and the installation of four-wheel disc brakes.
As part of the suspension overhaul there are new lower wishbones for the front suspension and the rear shock absorbers have been moved outwards from the rear chassis rails for better stability on rough roads (as is the case on both Volkswagen Amarok generations and the new Ford Ranger) .
The photos show that the 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport tested comes with an aggressive all-terrain tire and a new wheel design (which remains under wraps for now).
Although the new front bumper and grille are heavily masked, the camouflage does little to disguise the bold new styling and distinctive “bash plate”.
If the 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport follows the styling theme of other variants, the grille will feature TOYOTA lettering instead of an oval logo badge.
It’s unclear why Toyota put two lines of tape over the headlights and over the hood; It’s possible this was designed to look less like a HiLux and to disguise the emphasis on the new grille.
The vehicle in the photos has a strip of tape on the front doors and a larger section of tape on the right side of the tailgate – where GR Sport badging is found on current versions of the HiLux GR Sport sold overseas.
The power output of the 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport has yet to be announced, but in South Africa an earlier top-end model delivered a power boost for the 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel from 150kW/500Nm to 165kW/550Nm .
There has been speculation abroad that the 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport could be fitted with a turbodiesel V6 engine, but that seems unlikely given the added expense of a new round of emissions testing so late in the current model’s life cycle.
The current generation of Toyota HiLux is more than seven years old, having been introduced locally in August 2015.
If history is any guide, the next-gen Toyota HiLux is due in late 2025 or early 2026.
It is currently unclear whether the significant changes to the underbody of the 2023 Toyota HiLux Rogue and 2023 Toyota HiLux GR Sport will actually form the basis for the next generation of the Toyota HiLux. It would mean that the next model could simply be a new “top hat” (industry slang for new bodywork over an existing chassis).
Or it’s possible that three years after the next model, Toyota is doubling down on improvements to its iconic HiLux models to keep them fresh amid stiff new competition from the Ford Ranger and Volkswagen Amarok ride and handling benchmarks.
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