2022 Toyota Tundra’s Base Twin-Turbo V6 Engine Will Outperform Current N/A V8

Teased last month in the guise of a picture of the front fascia, the all-new Tundra will silence the naysayers with more horsepower and torque at the expense of two cylinders. Scheduled to arrive in showrooms by the end of 2021 for the 2022 model year, the full-size truck also rides on a new platform engineered for turbo four- and six-cylinder mills. TNGA-F is the codename of the ladder chassis, and it’s a modular design that can also be adapted for mid-sized pickups and SUVs. In other words, the next-generation Tacoma, Hilux, 4Runner, and Lexus GX will utilize it.

Clever though it may be, the vehicle architecture of the 2022 Toyota Tundra means that we’ll bid farewell to the i-Force V8 currently offered in the full-size truck, Land Cruiser, and Lexus LX. Instead of an eight-cylinder burble, prospective customers should look forward to a couple of V6 powerplants.

Bob Carter, the executive vice president of sales for Toyota North America, told MotorTrend that “the base engine will be a core powertrain that’s substantially more powerful than the current V8.” If the culprit is the twin-turbo V6 with 3.5 liters of displacement of the Lexus LS 500 sedan, look forward to 416 horsepower and 442 pound-feet (600 Nm) from 1,600 rpm.

Those figures vastly outperform the 381 horsepower and 401 pound-feet (544 Nm) at 3,600 rpm of the i-Force V8, and the broader torque curve should also help fuel economy. To whom it may concern, the most frugal Tundra averages 15 miles per gallon (15.7 liters per 100 kilometers) combined while the Lexus LS 500 tops 22 mpg (10.7 l/100 km) combined.

Carter didn’t say whether the base powerplant is a twin-turbo V6, but we already know that Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards favor downsizing and forced induction. As for the second engine option, the most Carter is willing to say for the time being is that it “will blow you away.” Reading between the lines, a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid is on the horizon.