10/07/2024
The story goes back to 1961, when Hino Motors developed a small pickup truck called the Briska, but since its introduction, sales have been poor. It wasn't until 1966 that Hino formed an alliance with Toyota, which later took control of the company, in order to face the U.S. onslaught on the market. Toyota then, the newly appointed fifth-generation president Toyota Eiji, had a sudden idea to produce a high-end, luxury farm vehicle. He turned around and found Hino lying there dying Briska, so after some redesign modification tossed in 1968, High+luxury = Hilux to the unthreatening image came out...
Surprisingly, from 1969, when it was introduced to the North American market, to 1977, Toyota produced one million such vehicles in eight years. Since then, the Hilux has used its real-world sales to establish itself as the world's No. 1 compact pickup truck, and has since gone on to set records set by itself.
It's nowhere near the sales of the Ford F-Series, but considering the two aren't in the same class, there's no comparison. Hilux can be said to be cost-effective. It is cheap, leather, durable and has the highest accident survival rate. By the end of 2023, the total sales volume of Hilux in the world has exceeded 20 million, ranking in the top ten most popular vehicles in the world.
The new eighth-generation Hilux will go on sale in the spring and summer of 2024, with a total of six models in four power trims and six high and low configurations. The different styles of the front air intake grille molds are all manufactured by "Dongguan Kuasu MoldTec Co., Ltd", and the Sport and GR versions have already been put into mass production first!
