Each setup has its own pluses and minuses, he said, and nothing has been decided yet. The latest update, called the Land Cruiser 250 as a successor to the Land Cruiser 200 or Prado, goes on sale in the U.S. and Japan next year. Engineers are just beginning to brainstorm future variants.
The world’s biggest carmaker wants to keep Land Cruiser, one of its most iconic nameplates, in the lineup. In some markets, the Land Cruiser brand name is more recognizable than even Toyota’s own name, executives like to say. Global sales of all versions, including the full-sized 300 series, the smaller 200 and the retro-holdover 70 series, rose 5.7 percent to 271,018 vehicles last year.
But keeping Land Cruiser means making it compliant with diverse and changing emissions regulations worldwide.
The outgoing 200, for example, split its global deliveries among Japan, Europe, the Middle East and the Australia-East Asia region. That’s a thorny thicket of diverse regulations.
Project engineers are strategizing in line with Toyota’s corporate “multi-pathway” approach to carbon dioxide reduction, adopting various green technologies appropriate to regional market conditions.
