Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series V8 to be axed within two years, report claims

The 4.5-litre turbo-diesel V8 engine in the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series could be dropped by late 2025 – less than two years from now – according to an unverified report out of South Africa.

Website Cars.co.za claims sources with inside knowledge of Toyota's plans have revealed the '1VD-FTV' diesel V8 engine – currently found in the LandCruiser 70 Series – will begin to be phased out from August 2024, before being dropped for good in August 2025.

Though unconfirmed at this stage, it claims the 76 Series wagon will be the first to lose the engine, with the 79 Series single- and double-cab chassis utes to follow a year later – marking the end of the diesel V8 after what will be 18 years of production.

The report does not list an end of production date for the Troop Carrier (78 Series).

While the report acknowledges there may be "some minor leeway in these dates", it speculates the decision has been made for global production, rather than just the South African market.

MORE: Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series V8 orders will resume later, 2.8-litre four-cylinder diesel coming soon

Toyota launched the latest version of the iconic 70 Series in Australia in recent weeks, adding a 150kW/500Nm 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine to the line-up, where it produces 1kW less power than the V8, but with 70Nm more torque.

At this stage, order books in Australia for the 70 Series with the 4.5-litre V8 remain closed as the company's local arm works through delivering its current backlog.

"We have no end date right now for V8," Toyota Australia's sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley told Drive at the recent local media launch for the 70 Series, after being asked whether the V8 would be phased out soon.

"What we do know is that there are a whole bunch of different regulations coming, we believe the vehicle environment in Australia will change, it will have a necessary change particularly I think when fuel emission standards come to the fore," he said.

MORE: 2024 Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series price and specs

"We have no end date, and our first priority right now is to exhaust what is a fairly extensive V8 order bank we have.

"We are committed to try and exhaust that first, and then we will determine [if we re-open orders] – based on [the sales] mix [between four-cylinder and V8] and the environment we go into – but we have no end date on V8 right now," Mr Hanley reiterated.

A spokesperson for Toyota Australia also told Drive they were not aware of any plans to discontinue the diesel V8 at this stage.

The 4.5-litre diesel V8 debuted as a single-turbo engine in the 70 Series in 2007, while the LandCruiser 200 Series – the previous generation of the family off-road SUV – offered the engine with twin turbochargers and an automatic transmission.

The LandCruiser 300 Series, unveiled in 2021, dropped the V8 in favour of a 3.3-litre turbo-diesel V6.