Toyota Motor North America released the first full picture of the redesigned 2022 Tundra late Friday after a leaked image of the full-size pickup was reported by several media outlets.
The automaker had shown two teaser photos of portions of the truck: The front obscured by fog/smoke and the new iForce Max engine. However, photos from a dealer meeting were circulating Friday morning on social media and Internet forums, including enthusiast site Tundras.com.
Later in the day, Toyota’s official Twitter account posted a photo of the TRD Pro Tundra, saying: “Some people don’t know how to keep a secret. #Tundra #LetsGoPlaces”
Toyota had been keeping the project under tight wraps. During a media event at the automaker’s North American headquarters this month in Plano, Texas, attendees were shown the exterior of the truck with strict instructions to not take photos.
Toyota dealers are eagerly awaiting the 2022 Tundra — the truck’s first redesign in 14 years. Toyota is expected to begin production of the pickup this fall at a San Antonio, Texas, assembly plant, with sales launching by the end of the year.
It is the lead vehicle for Toyota’s new global body-on-frame platform, which eventually will underpin the rest of the brand’s non-unibody U.S. lineup.
“The new Tundra is the most exciting thing we’ve had in the last five-plus years,” said Robby Findlay, chairman of the Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council, told Automotive News in February. “I mean, we’ve been waiting so long for a new Tundra; we know the potential of that full-size-truck market. And from everything that they’re telling us, we’re going to have best in class. I mean, we’re going to have a world beater, and it’s going to be fun to really go toe-to-toe with the domestic trucks.”
The Tundra was No. 5 in the full-size pickup segment in 2020. It had 109,203 U.S. sales vs. the segment-dominating Ford F-Series, which tallied 787,422.