Toyota’s new ladder-frame bakkie has been spotted in what appears to be production-ready guise in Thailand. And, fascinatingly, it’s wearing the “Hilux Champ” badge…

We’ve already seen Toyota’s upcoming workhorse bakkie concept in several forms, but now what appears to be the production version has been spotted in Thailand. And, rather fascinatingly, it’s wearing the “Hilux Champ” badge.

As a reminder, Toyota revealed the IMV 0 Concept in Thailand towards the end of 2022, before showing off a few interesting applications of the ladder-frame bakkie concept – since christened “Rangga” in that country – in August 2023. Further iterations were then unwrapped at the recent Japan Mobility Show 2023.

Now, Kurdistan_Automotive_Blog has published spy photographs of the vehicle on Instagram. While the seemingly production-spec bakkie doesn’t appear too far removed from the basic concept version, the images do show the vehicle sporting “Hilux Champ” plates.

According to the Instagram post, Toyota is scheduled to show the production version in Thailand on 27 November 2023. Based on that timing, the bakkie may well be available in initial markets as early as next year.

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Of course, South Africans will associate the Champ nameplate with the Rosslyn-built Nissan 1400 bakkie that preceded the NP200, with the former nicknamed the “Champion of Africa” (or Champ, for short). But the moniker has been used by Toyota before, applied to an updated version of the 7th-generation Hilux offered in Thailand from 2012 (with the official name of that model being the “Toyota Hilux Vigo Champ”).

So, what do we know about the new Hilux Champ? Well, though powertrain details have yet to be released – indeed, we have very little official technical information (so, no word on payload capacity, for instance) at all – the Japanese automaker has confirmed the bakkie’s exterior dimensions.

The wheelbase is listed as 3 085 mm, precisely the same distance between the axles of the current-generation Hilux. In concept form, the bakkie measures 5 300 mm from nose to tail, which is 30 mm longer than a single-cab Hilux but 25 mm shorter than extended- and double-cab versions of Toyota’s big-selling bakkie. It’s 1 785 mm wide (a touch narrower than a standard Hilux) and stands 1 740 mm tall.

Whether or not the Hilux Champ is on the cards for South Africa remains to be seen (nor whether it will wear this badge in all markets), but it’s worth keeping in mind that earlier in 2023, as reported byIOL Motoring, Toyota SA Motors executives hinted at an upcoming model that could slot inbelowthe Hilux and likely be built at the same factory in KwaZulu-Natal. Considering the new Champ seemingly shares its underpinnings with the current-generation Hilux, could that mean local production is indeed on the horizon?

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