2024 Toyota Tacoma gets hybrid and manual transmission options

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Those of us who spend way too much time in front of a screen know the “It’s Happening” meme, one in which an excited Ron Paul waves his arms about as lasers dance in the background. Surely, the same verve is being expressed by truck fans today, as Toyota has – at long last – officially unveiled the new 2024 Tacoma midsize pickup truck.

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Let’s start under the hood. It’s been the industry’s worst-kept secret that this machine is gaining hybrid power for 2024, and those rumours have proven to be true. The i-Force Max powerplant will heave out a healthy 326 horsepower and 465 lb-ft of torque, thanks to its 2.4L four-cylinder turbocharged engine and electric motor, plus a 1.87-kWh nickel-metal hydride battery pack.

An eight-speed automatic is hooked to this mill, and four-wheel-drive is the order of the day in this neck of the woods. Luddites will hate the four-wheel disc brakes on all models, and Toyota is banking that Canadians like four full doors.

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Stepping into a non-hybrid, customers will again find a 2.4L turbo four-banger, good for 278 horses and 317 lb-ft of twist when paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission. Opt for the six-speed manual (hooray!) and those numbers drop by eight and seven, respectively. Like its big-bro Tundra, the gasser drops the hybrid’s “Max” nomenclature but retains the “iForce” name.

If you’re wondering, the current Tacoma makes do with a 3.5L V6 capable of delivering 278 ponies and 265 torques. No matter which way you slice it, the new Tacoma is – on paper – far more powerful than the old one; we look forward to getting behind the wheel. Alert readers will note the hybrid outstrips both the Chevrolet Colorado–GMC Canyon and Ford Ranger in terms of torque, even besting the mighty Ranger Raptor by 35 lb-ft. Yee to the haw, then.

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2024 Toyota Tacoma SR5 and Limited

There will be six trims available in Canada. In ascending order, we find: the SR5; TRD Sport; TRD Off-Road; Limited; Trailhunter; and TRD Pro. Sorting wheat from chaff, and avoiding turning this post into a 2,000-word tome, know the SR5 is well-equipped with multilink rear suspension, eight-inch infotainment, and LED lighting.

The Limited (offered only as a hybrid) packs a unique set-and-forget full-time four-wheel-drive system which will be user-friendly to new truck owners, plus comforts like power running boards, heads-up display, and heated/cooled front seats.

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2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport and TRD Off-Road

But you’re here for the off-road specs, right? Yeah, us, too. For starters, look towards the TRD Sport as a gateway drug to all things dirt. It is here one will find the manual transmission, along with red TRD-tuned shocks, 18-inch black TRD wheels, and a burly hood scoop. The trick removable JBL speaker is an option.

Ramping up to the TRD Off-Road, we again find the stickshift option, and the hybrid powertrain appears for the first time on Tacoma’s trim ladder. Bilstein monotube remote-reservoir shocks are on board, a locking diff lives out back, and a front-stabilizer-bar disconnect is available. Composite skid plates are hove underneath, 33-inch tires are an option, and a multi-terrain select system stands ready to help you over and out of the tricky stuff. The 12.3-inch reconfigurable gauge cluster shows up for duty, but the infotainment remains at 8 inches of screen real estate.

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This time around, Toyota has decided to split its top-tier crown across two trims, and is likely to call it a “Y strategy” or something insufferable. The upshot is this: Trailhunter is focused on going far, while the TRD Pro has its sights set on going fast.

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2024 Toyota Tacoma Trailhunter

Marketed to the overlanding crowd, the Trailhunter (great name, by the way) is a new trim intended as a factory-developed adventure machine. It packs position-sensitive 2.5-inch forged monotube shocks from Old Man Emu, equipped with rear external piggyback-style remote reservoirs.

It has a steel rear bumper, ARB recovery points, 33-inch meats, and an air intake mounted high on the truck’s A-pillar feeding atmosphere to the standard hybrid engine. The latter is a great design, binning the moronic option offered now, in which one must foolishly pivot the head backwards when driving in wet conditions. There’s a locking diff and stabilizer disconnect, of course.

Rock rails and high-strength bash pans are under the truck, while a 20-inch light bar and fog lamps that can switch from white to yellow are up front. Overlanders like their accessories, so electrical power comes in the form of a 2.4-kW inverter, and Toyota has seen fit to offer a bank of AUX switches located by the driver’s left knee. That’s a 14-inch Jumbotron for infotainment, and the Jeep-inspired removable JBL speaker is standard. There’s a heads-up display, as well.

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2024 Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro

This brings us to the TRD Pro. If the Trailhunter is designed to get you and yer buddies into that campsite in the sticks, this trim is focused on activities like high-speed desert-running. Red aluminum front TRD control arms are said to optimize suspension geometry for such shenanigans, while 2.5-inch Fox internal-bypass dampers can be tuned to one of three settings.

Built around the new multilink rear suspension, Fox internal floating-piston bump-stops should help knock the edge of gnarly terrain. Pro is about two inches higher and three inches wider than an SR5, packing unique wheels and 33-inch tires. The front integrated light bar takes a page from Tundra, fog lights (white only) peep forward, and a high-clearance metal bumper lives out back. Go ahead and lock that rear diff, plus disconnect the stabilizer bar while you’re at it.

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Similar toys as the Trailhunter live inside the TRD Pro (auxiliary switches, 14-inch infotainment, et al) but check out those seats. Toyota calls them “IsoDynamic Performance Seats”; we call them some of the coolest perches this side of the carbon units in a BMW M4. Using an air-over-oil shock absorber system to drive vertical and lateral seat movement, the goal is to dampen passenger movement and stabilize a human’s body during off-road tomfoolery. The effect is apparently tunable based on body mass, and can be turned off if ya don’t like it. Those too-cool tubes and gauges on the seatback probably eat into rear legroom, but we really don’t care.

As for styling, it’s safe to say this is an evolution of the current truck, which isn’t a bad thing given its massive popularity. Some obvious cues have been taken from the half-ton Tundra, though the Tacoma goes its own way in a couple of areas. We’ll let you be the judge.

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And, before you write angry letters saying we don’t know the difference between a piston and a pedal, you are definitely going to see images on the Internet today showing the new 2024 Tacoma with a beefy set of rear leaf springs. That’s because those suspension perches will be fitted to a trio of configurations we won’t be getting here in Canada right away: the SR, SR5 XtraCab, and TRD PreRunner.

This marks two fascinating choices by the Big T: holding affordable trims out of the Canadian market; and electing to offer its new midsizer with two completely different sets of rear suspenders. Perhaps the brand is seeking to placate buyers hesitant to give up the old-school design whilst simultaneously moving their best-seller into the 21st century. Speaking to the first point, towing numbers have only been released for the non-leaf trucks, topping out at 6,500 pounds, which isn’t much different from the current truck.

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With Ford and GM at or around a thousand pounds more than that with their own midsize pickups, perhaps Toyota is holding onto a few cards and figuring the traditional suspension will perform more strongly on the SAE standard J2807 towing measures, permitting it to advertise a maximum towing capacity similar to its rivals — even if those variants won’t (initially) be available in Canada. Maximum payload checks in at 1,709 pounds for a hybrid-equipped truck.

Pricing will be announced later. Look for non-hybrid variants of the 2024 Toyota Tacoma to begin appearing on dealer lots in late 2023, with the i-Force Max showing up by the time crocuses sprout in 2024.