Toyota has been tight-lipped about the much-anticipated LandCruiser 300 Series but there’s been an endless stream of leaks.
Now, we’ve gotten our first look at the new generation of flagship four-wheel drive in full thanks to a leaked photograph from what appears to be a Toyota facility published on multiple Facebook groups.
It reveals a body that’s an evolution of the current car, with a similarly pronounced grille and bluff sides.
The new off-roader is a little more squared off than before, while there’s a sharper up-kick in the belt line aft of the C-pillar.
The foreground example features chrome-finish alloy wheels, which suggests it could be the range-topping Sahara.
Toyota still hasn’t officially confirmed a launch date or what engines the 300 Series will use, although it’s highly likely the current model’s twin-turbocharged V8 diesel will be no more.
The most recent overseas report, from Japanese site Creative311, suggests it won’t launch initially with hybrid power as was originally thought. Instead, it’ll reportedly launch with one petrol and one diesel powertrain.
The diesel is said to be a 3.3-litre turbo-diesel six-cylinder engine producing 230kW of power and 687Nm of torque, mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission.
Unlike previous overseas reports, Creative311 says the engine isn’t a four-cylinder mill, nor is it an inline-six being developed by Mazda and shared with Toyota. The petrol engine is a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 producing 313kW of power and 589Nm of torque, also mated to a 10-speed automatic transmission.
The twin-turbo V6 is reportedly a version of the Lexus LS500’s engine. A hybrid 3.5-litre V6 will follow in 2022 or later, and may be a version of the LS500h’s powertrain.
The 300 Series will reportedly be the first LandCruiser to feature a GR Sport, which will be styled more as an off-road bruiser than boulevard cruiser. It’s said to feature large diameter tyres on 18-inch wheels and various off-road styling tweaks.
The new LandCruiser should see a significant upgrade in terms of safety equipment, with reports indicating the entire model range will come standard with Toyota’s Safety Sense suite of active safety technology.
That means standard equipment should include autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warning. Creative311 also reports blind-spot monitoring and a surround-view camera will be standard across the range, while up-spec models will add a 3D multi-terrain monitor and fingerprint detection to start the car. Touchscreens will measure 9.0 or 12.3 inches.
Leaks earlier this year gave us a close look of the centre stack in what appears to be range-topping Sahara guise, with heated and ventilated seat controls located just below the touchscreen and a row of hard buttons below those for the sound system.
There are also new features like a heated steering wheel and a Qi wireless charging pad on the centre console, as well as a larger screen within the instrument cluster flanked by analogue gauges.
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