Toyota Releases Official MPG Ranges/Estimates For Their New 2024 4th Gen Tacoma Models – Will The 4-Cylinder Beat The Outgoing V6 Engine?
Toyota has officially revealed their manufacture estimated MPG for standard i-FORCE 4th Gen Tacoma models. They have not shared any hybrid i-FORCE MAX MPG estimates yet, I suspect we will get that information around April 2024 when those trucks come closer to being released to the public.
As of right now, we only have information on the standard (non-hybrid) models which will start shipping to dealers in late December 2023 into early January 2024.
Below you will find numbers for SR, SR5, TRD Off-Road, TRD Sport, and Limited models. Unfortunately, Toyota doesn’t break down cab configurations with these estimates, only 4WD and manual transmission variants.
More 4th Gen content…
4th Gen (2024) Tacoma MPG
Model MPG Break Down
Here we are, the 2024 Manufacture MPG numbers. Why is it important that I say its manufacturer? Well, the EPA has an official say over what the true numbers are. So we could see a bump in official numbers or a slight decrease when their numbers come out. I was told that due to the government shutdown, the EPA is really backlogged when it comes to getting these numbers out, however, the EPA’s numbers should be very close to the numbers provided by Toyota during their testing.
With that disclaimer out of the way, when doing some comparison to the outgoing 3rd Gen Tacoma, in short, MPG numbers increase across the board. The new SR and SR5 trucks get a 3 mile bump on the highway for 2WD when compared to the outgoing models. This is pretty significant considering that the 4WD models also get 1 more mile as well.
You may be thinking though, that the 2024 OR trim gets 1 less MPG on the highway when comparing these numbers to the 2023 model configurator online, and in all fairness, you would be right upon initial comparison. But let’s dig a little deeper into this thought process. The current TRD Off-Road Tacoma is offered as 2WD and 4WD. In order for Toyota’s numbers to look great to the uneducated consumer, they will put their best MPG numbers out there, which in this case is for a 2WD truck. The new 4th Gen Tacoma, TRD Off-Road will only be offered as a 4WD truck. The only truck we can compare that to is the current TRD Pro which gets 17 City and 21 HWY. So the new TRD OR technically gets 2 MPG better in both the city and on the highway than the outgoing generation.
When looking at those numbers, it is clear that this new powertrain is a bit more efficient than the outgoing 3.5L V6, and these aren’t even the hybrid numbers. Since this truck is more efficient, the gas tank does unfortunately shrink to 18.2 gallons. Personally, I don’t like this, but you should get the same range if not a tad more out of the smaller tank. I just think it would have been nice to get increased MPG and have a 20+ gallon tank to really increase the range.
i-FORCE MAX MPG Guess
So what can we expect out of the i-FORCE MAX hybrids when they come out? When looking at the 3rd Gen Tundras that use the same sort of hybrid setup, we see that the MPG of hybrid trucks increases by 2 MPG in the city and the highway MPG stays about the same due to the weight of the heavy batteries.
I feel like the Tacoma may be close to a 2-3 point increase in the city and maybe just 1 point on the highway when compared to the standard i-FORCE powertrain. My reason for this is that I was at the Tacoma Drive Event. I was talking this the Tacoma powertrain engineer, and he said that the new Tacoma is lighter than the Tundra which makes it able to drive in EV (Electric Vehicle) Mode much longer than the Tundra can. He also stated that the truck will go into hybrid a little more often on the highway than the Tundra will as well.
This info gives me high hopes for the hybrid powertrain when it becomes available around April next year.
Final Thoughts
So, what are your thoughts on Toyota ditching the 3.5L V6 for this new i4 4-cylinder engine when it comes to the numbers? I personally think these are ok, but I am really excited to see what they can squeeze out of the hybrid for better performance around town and also hopefully on the highway. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! I’ll catch you all in the next one!
