PLANO, Texas, Sunday night, September 19, 2021: With a plethora of adventure-ready, go-anywhere, been-anywhere vehicles cementing its foundation, the all-new 2022 Toyota Tundra is born from a lineage of trucks and SUVs rooted in quality, durability, and reliability. Its predecessors hit the million-mile mark on more than one occasion thanks to a team of engineers who built the truck above and beyond the status quo.
Third Generation
It looks long and hard in the mirror and then gets to work. It resists the urge to repeat and rethinks its approach while carrying the knowledge of everything learned along the way. As the third generation of its namesake, Tundra looks to improve upon everything – performance, capability, multimedia, creature comforts and more.
The Toughest Tundra
It should come as no surprise that the all-new Tundra was redesigned from the ground up. Designed, engineered, and assembled in the U.S., there’s no question that this is the toughest, most capable, most advanced Tundra to date. Improvements and enhancements abound, including its new high-strength boxed, steel-ladder frame, aluminum-reinforced composite bed, and fully redesigned multi-link rear suspension. The outcome of development efforts gives the stout new Tundra an impressive maximum towing capacity of up to 12,000 pounds and a max payload capacity of 1940 pounds.
Tundra will offer two different powerplant configurations. A new, highly efficient twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 engine offers impressive output by itself, producing up to 389 horsepower and 479 lb-ft. of torque. When paired with a brilliantly engineered bell-housing motor system called the i-FORCE MAX, the result is a combined performance output of 437 horsepower and a whopping 583 lb.-ft. of torque. Both configurations will be mated to a new 10-speed automatic Transmission.
A new interior will offer creature comforts for driver and passenger alike, including an available panoramic roof, heated and ventilated front seats, rear sunshade, heated steering wheel and more. A host of new tech features are found throughout Tundra as well, such as towing aids, off-road enhancements, and an all-new multimedia system featuring wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and over-the-air updates. Two different four-door layouts are available, as well as various bed lengths including a 5.5-foot bed, 6.5-foot bed and an 8.1-foot bed. The all-new Tundra will go on sale later this year, and pricing will be announced closer to the on-sale date.
Homegrown: For Truck People, By Truck People
Like the prior generation Toyota Tundra, the new Tundra will be assembled at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas (TMMTX) in San Antonio. But years before it hit the production line, U.S. designers and engineers were hard at work on Toyota’s next full-sized Tundra pickup. The Tundra is an American story through and through. From the first pencil sketches to the finished exterior design, the look was developed by Toyota Motor Corporation’s North American design studio, Calty Design Research, in Newport Beach, California, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. While engineers focused on key performance ingredients for the new Tundra, Calty designers worked to create the visual exemplification of toughness and capability. “Technical muscle” was a design mantra for the team, as it capitalized on the modern features of the all-new truck while retaining a nod to the outdoor lifestyle at the core of Tundra owners.
“Our design goal from the beginning was to create the most powerful, rugged and sophisticated looking full-size pickup that will take Tundra to a whole new level,” said Kevin Hunter, President of Calty Design Research. “Because recreation and an outdoor lifestyle are at the core of Toyota truck identity, we set out to create a muscular, chiseled and athletic design that also looks like it could handle the toughest towing demands.” The interior was meant to retain that “Technical Muscle” motif. Calty chose a horizontal layout theme as a departure from the vertical layout on most other trucks in the market. This complemented the design goal to integrate the instrument panel and center stack to flow with the interior layout. Premium materials were also a must for a truck with a strong pedigree like Tundra’s, especially in high-contact areas, which is why wrapped armrests, pads across the dash, door and other areas are employed on most trims.
Calty’s design teams crafted an exterior and interior balance of angular lines and muscular refinement. Visually the truck needed to represent its capability that lives under the sheet metal. “We took a fresh, transformational approach to our truck development and had to rethink many things we’d previously done,” said Mike Sweers, Senior Vice President, Product Development Office, and F1 Platform Chief Engineer. “Not only did we improve the performance and enhance the capability of this new Tundra, at the same time, we were certain to retain the strong quality, durability and reliability for which Toyota trucks are known.”
Research and development for this truck was conducted at Toyota Technical Centers in Michigan, Arizona, and California. The key themes atop the whiteboard for Tundra chassis engineers: improve capability and ride comfort compared to the competition. The team found great benefit in moving to a fully boxed frame, which improved rigidity significantly compared to current generation and offered overall improvement in capability.
The frame structure itself is an example of innovative thinking. The rear frame member is widened to improve stability and towing capability. This foundation also helped ensure excellent ride comfort and polished handling dynamics, particularly on grades Limited and above where the cabin is mounted to the frame with hydraulic cab mounts.
High-strength steel is employed throughout the chassis to increase rigidity considerably over the previous generation, while aluminum is used in key areas to help reduce weight. Frame crossmembers are more than doubled in size to provide additional reinforcement and rigidity. A new front cross member was constructed for the steering gear box, which adds rigidity via additional cross member support while enhancing steering input for the driver and handling dynamics.
The truck bed is lightweight and extremely strong thanks to the new Sheet-Molded Compound (SMC) construction and the use of reinforcing aluminum cross members in the bed. The new SMC bed offers added protection against dents, impact dings and rust compared to traditional steel decks. Even the tailgate uses lightweight construction techniques to reduce weight by 20 percent compared to the outgoing model. Speaking of the tailgate, one of the coolest features is the tailgate release on the key fob that is standard on all models.
This video news feed is free to use without any usage restrictions, fees or obligations for regularly scheduled news, business, lifestyle & automotive TV programs and its directly related websites platforms only (any other intended uses requires written permission) covering the introduction of the Toyota Tundra (Any other intended uses of this materials required written permission).
WHAT IS IN THIS NEWS FEED:
– The 2022 Toyota Tundra Introduction National Broadcast Commercial – Runs 60 seconds
– Unveiling of the Tundra on stage
– Action & Towing Footage plus still pictures
– Soundbites with:
Bob Carter, Executive Vice President of Sales, Toyota Motor North America
Adam Rabinowitz, Executive Chief Designer, Toyota Motor North America
Benjamin Jimenez, General Manager, Interior Chief Designer, Toyota Motor North America
Mike Sweers, Toyota Senior Vice President, Product Development Office & Global Truck Chief Engineer
Jason Puckett, President, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama
April Mason, General Manager, Administration, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama, Inc., Huntsville, Alabama