The new Toyota Highlander is just around the corner, and it’s electric—pure electric. There will be no gas model—not even a hybrid or plug-in. From 2027 on, one of the brand’s most reliable mainstream nameplates will simply be an electric vehicle. And despite arriving at an awkward time for electric cars, it’s also poised to take advantage of a wide-open market.
Or, to put it another way, Toyota believes it can succeed in spaces Tesla recently abandoned. Dave Christ, Toyota Motor North America Group vice president, told Automotive News as much—and managed to do so without mentioning the competition by name.
“This is not a niche product. There will be volume,” Christ told AN. “Other [mass-market] brands have been selling EVs in higher volume than us for several years, and we think we felt one of our portfolio holes was not having EV options in the showroom.”
But even the unmentionables are struggling. Tesla recently axed its only relevant three-row, the Model X, to free up capacity—not for cars, but for robots. Tesla pointed to market forces to justify the pivot—the same forces that should be putting downward pressure on any new electric car.
But Toyota appears undaunted.
“Yes, [EV sales are] down after the federal incentives went away,” Christ told AN, “but we think that we deserve our fair share of the EV market that’s there, and these four cars will help us do that.”
Left unspoken here is likely Toyota’s confidence in its existing gasoline-powered alternative. While the Highlander is making the leap, the slightly larger Grand Highlander is staying put. It will continue to be offered in both gas and hybrid variants, giving ICE loyalists an easy out. They simply have to be willing to settle for an ever-so-slightly larger SUV.
And the real secret is that they wouldn’t actually be settling. Since its debut just a few years ago, the Grand Highlander has absolutely blown its smaller sibling out of the water. In 2021, Toyota sold more than a quarter million Highlanders in the United States. In 2025, that number slumped to fewer than 60,000. Meanwhile, Grand Highlander sales topped 136,000 last year on a 90% year-over-year increase.
Put simply, the gas Highlander won’t be missed.
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