- Toyota New Zealand has conformed it currently has no plans to sell the new all-electric version of the Highlander here.
- The new EV was revealed last week and will be built in at a different plant in the USA.
- The current hybrid model is also built in the USA alongside a larger Grand Highlander that is exclusive to the US market.
Following the reveal of the new all-electric seven-seat Highlander in the USA last week, Toyota New Zealand has confirmed that it currently has no plans to replace the Hybrid model with it here.
"The Highlander BEV is not an export right hand drive model and we have no current plans to introduce it to New Zealand," a spokesperson for Toyota New Zealand told DRIVEN Car Guide.
"We will continue to get the Highlander Hybrid. An alternative BEV SUV option will be the bZ4X Touring, soon to arrive in New Zealand. Although this does not come as a 7-seat model, it is a sizeable option."
The Highlander first debuted in the Australian and Japanese domestic markets in 2000 (where it was known as the Kluger) and the USA in 2001. It launched in New Zealand in 2005 and has remained on sale here ever since. Japanese sales stopped in 2008, however production for right-hand-drive models continued there until 2013, when it moved to the USA.
The new all-electric version of the Highlander is larger than the current hybrid (60mm wider with a 200mm longer wheelbase) and will initially be available in two forms - XLE and Limited - with two battery capacities and either front-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive.
The front-wheel-drive XLE model packs a 77kWh battery with an estimated range of approximately 462 kilometres, along with a 165kW/298Nm electric motor, while the all-wheel-drive XLE and Limited variants pack a larger 95.8kWh battery that offers up to 515 kilometres of range, and two electric motors with a combined output of 252kW/438Nm.
The current hybrid version of the Highlander was first introduced in New Zealand in 2021 and is built in Toyota's plant in Princetown, Indiana, in the USA, while the new EV version is due to start production in a separate plant in Georgetown, Kentucky.
TNZ's continuation of the hybrid model indicates that production will continue in tandem with the new electric model, for the time being at least, being built alongside the larger US-market exclusive Grand Highlander model at the Princetown plant. Toyota is also due to reintroduced the US-built Highlander into the Japanese market this year, but it has yet to conform whether that is the hybrid or electric model.