The Electric Toyota Land Cruiser: Everything You Need to Know

The Land Cruiser is one of Toyota’s most iconic nameplates — and it’s one that’s evolving. The all-new Land Cruiser coming to America is offered exclusively as a four-cylinder hybrid. And Toyota may have an all-electric model arriving in the not-too-distant future. Toyota offering a somewhat realistic preview of what that may look like with the Land Cruiser Se concept at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show.

Here’s what you need to know about Toyota’s future electric Land Cruiser.

The electric Land Cruiser should be bigger than the 2024 model

Toyota’s Land Cruiser Se concept is a three-row SUV. The brand provided the vehicle’s dimensions: the Land Cruiser Se concept is about nine inches longer than the 2024 Land Cruiser with an eight-inch longer wheelbase; it will also be shorter by six inches. As you can see from the concept, expect a production Land Cruiser EV to be less boxy and more aerodynamic than the new ICE model, with features like a sloping roof.

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The electric Land Cruiser should use a unibody EV platform

The current Land Cruiser employs a body-on-frame truck platform. However, the electric Land Cruiser Se concept switches to a unibody platform designed for electric vehicles. Toyota still promises the Land Cruiser Se has “highly responsive handling and confidence tackling rough terrain.” The “high-torque” driving experience from the electric powertrain should also help in that department.

In short, Toyota may take on the Range Rover with a vehicle structured far more like the Range Rover.

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How much range will the electric Land Cruiser have?

The electric Land Cruiser should get Toyota’s next-gen battery tech. According to Autocar, the electric Land Cruiser would launch with Toyota’s new Performance battery pack with twice the range of the bZ4X (which offers 228 miles in all-wheel-drive form) and a 20 percent reduced production cost. The Land Cruiser EV will allegedly eventually offer a High-Performance battery pack that bumps the range over 500 miles in EPA testing.

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What will the electric Land Cruiser be called?

We don’t know yet. Toyota hasn’t confirmed a name for the new EV, though “Land Cruiser” should be incorporated somehow. Toyota could stick with the concept name and call it the Land Cruiser SE. We hope the brand does not try to incorporate it into the bZ nomenclature.

Following Lexus’s naming pattern, we would expect a Lexus version of the vehicle to be the Lexus LZ.

Expect the electric Land Cruiser to be fancy

Toyota stresses the electric Land Cruiser Se’s “elegant, stylish design” and its “BEV quietness” on the road. The concept skews very much toward the luxury end of the spectrum.

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When will the electric Land Cruiser arrive?

Toyota has not yet revealed a timeline for an electric Land Cruiser. But we can make some educated guesses.

Lexus has pledged to go all-electric by 2030. We would strongly bet a range-topping SUV will be part of that lineup, and porting over the Land Cruiser to the Lexus lineup makes the most sense. That would suggest the vehicle will arrive before 2030.

We also don’t expect the Land Cruiser EV to arrive imminently. It should require Toyota’s new EV platform and advanced batteries to come to fruition. Neither of those things exists in production form currently.

Autocar expects Toyota to launch the electric Land Cruiser in 2026 for the 75th anniversary. That seems like a good bet for when we will at least see what Toyota has planned, even if the production vehicle arrives the following year.

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