Do we actually want the 2025 Toyota LandCruiser Prado Hybrid in Australia? Toyota isn't so sure...

The Toyota LandCruiser Prado Hybrid is no sure starter for Australia, with the company here uncertain the petrol-electric powertrain can survive our conditions and adventures.

That seems to be the rock and a hard place the Prado Hybrid – called the LandCruiser 250 in the USA – finds itself, with the punchy hybrid powertrain still wearing a question mark.

The powertrain in question is the i-Force Max hybrid, which pairs a 2.4-litre turbo-petrol engine with a 36kW electric motor integrated into an eight-speed transmission to pump out a total 243kW and 630Nm.

In fact, the hybrid powertrain outperforms our familiar 2.8-litre diesel in just about every metric, save two. The first is towing – in the USA, the hybrid allows for 2.7-tonne braked towing, less than the 3.5-tonne braked of the diesel-powered Prado.

The second, says Toyota, is the mystery of how the hybrid would handle Australia.

The brand says the New Vehicle Emissions Standard won't mean the end of Toyota's biggest bruisers, and it knows that electrification is coming, but it says the current-generation hybrid technology might not be the answer.

"I want to make it clear, there is no discussion in our organisation of stopping Prados or stopping LandCruisers or stopping HiLuxes," says Toyota Australia's VP of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley.

"I've often said that, by 2030, the vast majority of our models will have some form of electrification, except GR.

"It (the Prado Hybrid discussion) hasn't progressed. It's not that we don't have the capability, it's just a case of whether or not that particular hybrid engine would do the job that we want it to do in the Australian environment.

"Not just fuel saving, but off-road capability, towing capability, etc."