Mere two days after showing the Tacoma X-Runner Concept urban truck to the audience of the SEMA show, Toyota has now admitted that it has serious plans in mind for the car – just as long as it can be profitable, of course.
Speaking in an interview with CarBuzz, Toyota’s Chief Engineer in North America, Sheldon Brown, said that the market was probably ripe for a comeback of high-performance street trucks similar to the Ram 1500 SRT-10 and the Ford F-150 SVT Lightning. He admitted that it hadn’t been decided yet, but seemed possible.
He also pointed out that the Tacoma X-Runner was fully based on existing technology, so mass-producing it would not be difficult at all. With nearly all pickups currently being made focused strongly on off-road performance, the market segment of low-riding, sporty urban trucks has been neglected lately.
Will Toyota greenlight the X-Runner into production? According to Brown, that will depend on the financial viability of the project.
