All-New Second-Generation Toyota Tundra To Make Debut At 2006 Chicago Auto Show

01/17/2006 Torrance, CA

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A.,Inc. will stage the world premiere of the all-new 2007 Tundra full-size pickup truck at the 2006 Chicago Auto Show.

The Toyota Tundra was first introduced in 1999 as a 2000 model. Since then, it has won numerous awards and has been recognized for its value, quality and reliability. The completely redesigned 2007 Tundra will be bigger, more powerful and will offer new body and engine configurations. This all-new Tundra will be built in America at both Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Indiana and the new San Antonio,Texas plants.

The press conference will be held on Thursday, February 9 at 9:00 AM in the Grand Ballroom in McCormick Place and simulcast live to the Toyota display area at the show. A video clip of the press conference will be available for viewing following the event on the Toyota.com website.

 

Folks found this on a different forum. Word is 5.5 VVT to start with 385 hp..with hybrid version being released next year. No word on diesel yet. Also the interior is supposed to be the best part, a lot of new innovations..

For those that haven't seen here's a link to see the FTX concept - http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...leId=100392461

Here's a link of what the new Tundra is actually supposed to look like - http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...g?d=1137806052

 

From AP:
Toyota Delays Sale of New Pickup Until January 2007

Toyota Motor Corp., the first Japanese automaker to develop a large pickup for the U.S., said it will release the redesigned Tundra truck in January 2007, later than analysts had anticipated.

"Sales will start in 2007, early 2007", Yukitoshi Funo, chief executive officer of Toyota's U.S. sales unit, said in an interview yesterday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. ``We are now thinking of New Year because Christmas break and so forth may not be helpful to the launching. It's a minor adjustment.''

Production of the revamped Tundra is slated to begin late this year in San Antonio at Toyota's newest North American factory. The company has said the model will be its first that's comparable in size and power with trucks from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp., the biggest sellers of large pickups. Toyota trails only GM in global vehicle sales.

The Tundra marks an attempt by Toyota to gain market share in the only vehicle segment still dominated by U.S.-based companies. The current Tundra and Nissan Motor Co.'s Titan won 8.6 percent of 2.46 million large-pickup sales last year in the U.S. Asian automakers sold a record 36.5 percent of all new cars and trucks last year.

Market forecasters, including Lexington, Massachusetts- based Global Insight Inc. and Edmunds.com, an auto-data service in Santa Monica, California, had expected sales of the new Tundra to begin this year.

December Forecast

"We expected the product to arrive in late December,'' Rebecca Lindland, an analyst at Global Insight, said at the Detroit show. "I was only expecting a few thousand units this year, but it's in my 2006 forecast.''

Edmunds.com also anticipated a late-2006 release, executive editor Karl Brauer said. He called the new schedule for the sales debut "a surprise.''

Toyota's American depositary receipts fell $2.65, or 2.5 percent, to $105.55 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 32 percent in the past 12 months.

Toyota will increase its inventory of the new trucks late this year, company spokesman Mike Michels said.

"The ramp-up at the Texas plant will be gradual,'' he said. "It's a more complex product, with a broader range of cab and body styles than anything else we do.''

Toyota's San Antonio factory will be able to produce as many as 200,000 Tundra's a year. The company built about 130,000 of the current version at its Princeton, Indiana, plant in 2005.

A concept version of the pickup was displayed in January 2005 at the Detroit auto show. The new Tundra will be shown to the public next month at the Chicago auto show, Toyota said.

Heavy-Duty, Hybrid Versions

A heavy-duty, diesel-engine Tundra won't be available when sales of the new model begin in 2007, said Jim Lentz, U.S. general manager of the Toyota brand, in an interview in Detroit. The company is studying offering both heavy-duty and hybrid gasoline-electric Tundras. Lentz said the automaker isn't sure how big the market for such models will be.

"You have to take a look at the cost of all these engines, how many you are going to be selling, to make sure it really makes financial sense before you jump into that market,'' he said.

No Japanese automaker offers a heavy-duty diesel pickup to compete with GM's Silverado and Sierra trucks or Ford's F-250 and F-350, among the most profitable vehicles for the two U.S. automakers. Nissan has also said it wants to offer a heavy-duty diesel Titan, without setting a sale date or unit target.

Extra Costs

"In today's environment, a diesel powertrain is about a $5,500 price premium, and that may not include upgrades in transmissions, which often takes place as well,'' Lentz said. Stricter diesel emission rules will require added filtering by 2010 that could raise costs of such engines as much as $4,500, Lentz said.

"The question becomes, at a $7,500 or $10,000 diesel premium, how many of those are you going to sell in the heavy- duty application,'' he said. "That's something a manufacturer really has to understand before they dip their toe in that water.''