Toyota plans to mass produce battery Hilux pickup truck by 2025, official says

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Japan's Toyota plans to mass-produce a battery electric Hilux pickup truck by the end of 2025, the president of its Thailand unit said on Tuesday.

The announcement comes just a few days after the Thai government said that the rival Japanese automaker Isuzu Motors said it would manufacture its battery D-MAX pickup in Thailand by 2025.

Thailand is a regional automaking hub, with pickup trucks among the vehicles produced for domestic sale and export.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Bangkok International Motor Show, Toyota Thailand's Noriaki Yamashita said the Hilux could be ready by the end of next year. He did not specify where the vehicle would be produced.

In Thailand, Toyota expects to sell 250,000 vehicles this year, Yamashita said.

Electric vehicles (EV) adoption has been gaining momentum in Thailand, led by Chinese EV brands like BYD, state-owned Changan Automobile and Great Wall Motors, which all together have poured $1.44 billion into new facilities into Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

Thailand has been a regional auto assembly and export hub and has been dominated by Japanese brands like Nissan Motors and Honda Motors.

Toyota, the Thai market leader accounting for a third of sales, will deliver a dozen battery Hilux pickup trucks to the tourist beach town of Pattaya in eastern Thailand for trials as public transportation next month, Yamashita said.

(This story has been corrected to say that Hilux would be ready next year, and not this year, in paragraph 4, and changes the name of the vehicle to Hilux, not D-MAX, in paragraph 8)

(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Editing by Martin Petty)