Toyota Teases A Diesel Option For 4Runner [Update: Not Quite]

Correction: Friday, February 8, 2019, 10:45 a.m. ET: A previous version of this story incorrectly claimed there was evidence that Toyota plans to bring a diesel version of the 4Runner to the American market. Toyota denies plans to bring this or other diesel engines to the U.S. market, saying "diesel is presently not part of our strategy for North America. We are still bullish on conventional engines, hybrids and fuel cell technology." We greatly regret the error.

During Toyota's launch event for the new Rav4 Thursday ahead of the Chicago Auto Show, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota Division at Toyota Motor North America Jack Hollis, said in passing "every 4Runner is fitted with a new instrument panel." He completely glossed over the extremely important fact that this new instrument panel features a tachometer that only revs to 4500 rpm.

The current generation Toyota 4Runner, having been in production since 2009, features only one engine for worldwide consumption. The 1GR-FE V6 is that long-serving 4-liter that Toyota has made available in almost all of its trucks and SUVs since 2002. Unless Toyota has all of a sudden seen fit to reduce the 1GR's redline from 6000 rpm to 4500 rpm.

It was a bit tricky of Toyota to sneak that image into its press conference, seen in the below video at timestamp 15:44, but a bit fun that it wasn't quite ready to play that card just yet.

H/T: Isaiah Hoffland