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These two changes alone will put an end to the gas gulping 5.7L V8 equipped Tundra. Whether you drive a 4x2 5.7L V8 or the 4x4 5.7L V8, neither drivetrain is capable of meeting the newly proposed fuel efficiency standards. Therefore Toyota has to make some changes, and obviously they’ll have to do it soon.
Toyota however may not want to give up on the 5.7L V8 just yet, and could possibly assemble it solely for export. That’s right, the Tundra, which is assembled in San Antonio, Texas, may be built entirely as an export. I’ve learned that engineering the Tundra as a right hand drive pickup is not that difficult to do.
Earlier this year at the Chicago auto show Mike Sweers, the chief engineer for the Toyota Tundra and Tacoma vehicle programs, told an Australian automotive media magazine that it would be possible to build the Tundra in right-hand drive.
“Well of course it’s possible to change it to right-hand drive, we do that for some of our export vehicles now,” Sweers said.
“Right-hand drive, left-hand drive is not that difficult to switch. The biggest difficulty is re-engineering the instrument panel.”
When the new EPA fuel efficiency standards are signed into law this year Automakers like Toyota must also consider their own CAFÉ standards. That’s right there’s another set of fuel efficiency standards that automakers have all agreed to uphold.
Back in July of 2011, President Obama announced an agreement with thirteen large automakers to increase overall corporate average fuel economy to 54.5 miles per gallon for all cars and light-duty trucks by model year 2025. He was joined by nearly all the automakers including Toyota, as well as the United Auto Workers (UAW), and the State of California, who were all participants in the deal signing. The agreement will result in new CAFE regulations beginning with model year 2017.
A new report out this week from Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute compares the CAFE targets for new light-duty vehicles with the NHTSA estimates of what actually will be achieved by automakers. The NHTSA data indicates that the mileage performance projected to be achieved by model year 2025 is 46.2 miles per gallon, which is significantly below the CAFE target.
The red-line is the projected growth in average fuel economy for all new cars and light passenger trucks in the U.S. The Blue line is the growth excluding different credits automakers are getting and is more reflective of real fuel economy improvement. Source: University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.
All these changes will leave automakers like Toyota with trucks like the Tundra scrambling to up their MPG numbers so they can improve their CAFÉ numbers. One idea floating around would be to begin exporting the Tundra to other markets and later drop it from the American market entirely.
The pickup could be replaced in North America with a more fuel efficient full-sized pickup likely with a hybrid powertrain that meets the new, more stringent fuel efficiency standards. After-all we all know Toyota has abandoned the attempt to be class leading, so it seems to make more sense to produce something new from scratch.
