Toyota made it known this morning (via a Facebook video) that it plans to bring the rugged Land Cruiser model back to the North American market. The automaker’s Canadian division subsequently confirmed on its own Facebook page that the returning model will also return north of the 49th Parallel.
There is currently a Land Cruiser model marketed in other global markets, but the nameplate hasn’t been part of the Toyota offering in Canada since 1996, and in the U.S. since 2021.
This announcement comes not coincidentally on the heels of the unveiling of the new Lexus GX, and it’s likely Toyota will conceive of the new Land Cruiser as a less-high-end version of that SUV. With that in mind, we can speculate that the future North American Land Cruiser might feature a 3.4L turbocharged V6 engine with an output of 349 hp, working with a 10-speed auto transmission in an all-wheel-drive configuration.
We repeat, that’s speculation, since Toyota has confirmed nothing about the innards of the Land Cruiser-to-come.
Stay tuned.