The Toyota Proace Max is a new large van that completes the brand’s commercial vehicle line up as it offers a vehicle in every major sector in the UK market.
The Proace Max is not entirely new, however, as it comes as a result of Toyota’s partnership with the Stellantis group. This means that it is essentially a rebadged version of the Citroen Relay, Fiat Ducato, Peugeot Boxer and Vauxhall Movano.
This is not a new approach for Toyota, as the Proace medium van and the small Proace City are both lightly breathed on versions of the equivalent vans offered by those other manufacturers.
Although it was originally thought that Toyota might not join the large van party until an all-new version was available, this has not proved the case and the Proace Max will use a very long-standing vehicle as its basis. The van first made its debut back in 2006, although it was revised once again at the end of 2023.
All bases covered
By offering a large van, Toyota puts itself in a relatively rare position – it is the only manufacturer to not only offer a van in all of the major size categories but also sell a pick-up truck and a car-derived van. Ford was the last rival to do similar, but this ended with the dropping of the Fiesta van.
It shows that Toyota is pretty serious about the commercial market, and it has been making some impressive strides in recent years. It accounted for 1.9% of commercial vehicles sold in the UK in 2016 and this is up to 5.6% as of late 2023.
The Toyota Proace Max will be available in multiple forms, as is the case with the rival brands’ offerings. It will come in a choice of four configurations, two heights and three lengths with two wheelbase lengths. It will also come with an electric powertrain, meaning Toyota will offer an electrified version of each of its three panel vans.
Although Toyota has not released full details of the powertrain yet, it has said it will come with a 260-mile range. This would be the same as the updated Relay/Boxer etc, so it would mean the Proace Max would come with the new 110kWh battery.
The versatile platform underneath the Proace Max means that it will also be able to provide scope for plenty of conversions.
Other Proace models revised
Toyota is revising the rest of its panel van range at the same time as the Proace Max is launched. This is little surprise given the mass-facelift that Stellantis announced for its van models in October 2023. The Toyota Proace and Proace City get the same changes as the other small and medium vans in the portfolio.
This means improvements to the range and updates to the looks. The Proace gains an additional 12.5-miles of range, boosting its ability to 217 miles in total.
The Proace City is now capable of 205 miles, which represents a boost of 31 miles. Both will also get updates to the front-end styling.
Hilux engine tweaks
The Hilux is not left out of these updates to the Toyota commercial vehicle range, as it gains a new 48V Hybrid model, which will boost economy and is said to improve driveability. Toyota says it will boost throttle response, make acceleration smoother on rough terrain and it will improve downhill regenerative braking.
More details on the Hilux, Proace Max and the updates to the rest of the Toyota commercial vehicle range are expected closer to their 2024 on-sale date.
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