Toyota to unveil 2016 Tacoma at Detroit Auto Show next month; here’s a spy shot of the new design to hold you over

Updated Dec 10, 2014

Though Toyota has long dominated the market for midsize pickup trucks, consider the competition reignited.

Soon after Motor Trend announced the Chevrolet Colorado’s major upset win in its 2015 Truck of the Year awards over the 2015 Ford F-150, Toyota told the Detroit Free Press it will unveil the 2016 Tacoma at the Detroit Auto Show in January.

“I think the category should grow some and I think with us being kind of the dominant player in that category right now I think we will benefit from it,” Bill Fay, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota division, told the paper.

The Free Press article says we can expect a full redesign of the Tacoma and the spy shot above, captured by KGP Photography, of the new model in testing certainly bears that out. A piece from Truck Trend postulates the main piece of ground the new Tacoma will likely aim to regain from GM’s new midsize trucks is fuel economy.

The Colorado and GMC Canyon overtook the Tacoma as the most fuel efficient midsize truck and Truck Trend says the Tacoma will most likely attempt to bests GM’s trucks in this category through, “an automatic transmission with a few extra ratios and either a downsized or direct-injected (or both) V6.”