Toyota dropped a 760 kg caravan onto an electric Hilux — then drove it away
Toyota set out to prove that the electric Hilux is no more fragile than its predecessors. Taking inspiration from a legendary 2003 Top Gear test, the manufacturer dropped a 760 kg caravan onto the new pickup’s cab. The Hilux suffered body damage, but started immediately after the impact and left the test site under its own power.
A nine-metre drop
The test took place at Bentwaters airfield in Suffolk, UK. The caravan was raised to a height of around nine metres and dropped directly onto the electric Hilux’s cab.
Reddit users chose the test method. Toyota offered the alternative of striking the vehicle with a one-tonne wrecking ball, but voters preferred the caravan. In doing so, Toyota repeated one of Top Gear’s most famous Hilux episodes.
In 2023, Top Gear submerged an old Hilux in the sea, rammed it, dropped a caravan onto it and finally left it on the roof of a 23-storey building that was to be demolished. The Hilux refused to die after all of this, and those tests established the model’s reputation as “indestructible”.
The electric powertrain must uphold the same reputation
This time, the vehicle was the electric version of the ninth-generation Hilux. This matters to Toyota because adding a battery must not make a work vehicle more fragile in precisely the conditions where Hilux buyers expect durability.
According to the manufacturer, the electric Hilux underwent deep-water, difficult-terrain and full battery-submersion tests during development. The vehicle uses dedicated structural features to protect the battery. Its wading depth is 700 millimetres.
Toyota is not stopping at the caravan this time. After the test, the manufacturer handed the electric Hilux over to Top Gear’s YouTube team, which will continue testing the vehicle’s durability.
In Europe’s pick-up market, the electric Hilux has to prove something more important than its ability to survive a caravan landing on it. The electric version’s range still makes it considerably less practical than the diesel Hilux, but its 700 mm wading depth and extensively protected battery show that Toyota does not want to sacrifice the model’s work-vehicle capabilities for electrification.
