Is America Ready To Love Small Trucks?

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It doesn’t matter if you’re from Ontario, Oklahoma, or Oaxaca; North Americans fucking love trucks.

It isn’t a secret that truck sales have swallowed car sales across the continent, and they continue to grow.

(Sorry, cars, but you’re so, like, 1981.)

With the proliferation of trucks, the trucks keep getting bigger.

Over the last few decades, trucks have gotten taller and a whole lot heavier, making today’s mid-size pickup feel like yesterday’s full-size.

On some large pickups, the hoods are almost at eye level for many adults. This has resulted in dangerous tradeoffs between driver visibility and pedestrian safety.

However, a secondary effect of our growing love for larger trucks is the expansion of trucks into all other size segments.

While the mid-sized pickup war has been raging for years, we’re witnessing the dawn of a new front in the truck conflict, the battle for best small truck.

This week, Cooper Ericksen, head of planning and strategy for Toyota Motor North America (after considering the move for years), confirmed that Toyota is ready to build a new truck smaller than the Tacoma, “Decisions have been made. The question is when we can slot it in. It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ at this point. We’ve studied it a lot. We’re dedicated to it. We’re going to figure out how to make it work.”

When Toyota’s new tiny truck comes to town, it’ll have some notable competition.

Ford dropped their answer to the smaller truck question, the Ford Maverick, back in 2022.

With the Maverick, Ford didn’t just launch a compact pickup. It found a choke point in the market and elbowed through with hybrid options that do actual truck stuff.

Ford reports Maverick hit an all-time best quarter in Q2 2025 with 48,041 sold, helping drive Blue Oval market share gains while hybrids climbed triple digits year to date.

Some people might stumble on the word “truck” when they lob it at the Hyundai Santa Cruz. But the SUV carved into a truck has found a customer base of its own.

Hyundai facelifted the Santa Cruz for 2025, cleaned up the cabin, and kept its surfer lifestyle party tricks. Motortrend describes it as “tiny, but it gets the job done, more so than you probably expect.”

Sales reality check, though: the Maverick is the mass-market hit; Santa Cruz plays a smaller, lifestyle-leaning niche and has been trending down year-over-year in the first half of 2025.

In May, Texas became the latest among a growing list of US states to legalize cute, Japanese mini trucks.

Then there’s the bevy of compact electric truck startup options coming to market.

The Slate Auto compact transformer truck has captured the consumer imagination and headlines. The Jeff Bezos-backed startup aims to sell a customizable, American-made EV pickup for under $30,000.

Let’s not forget the tiny TELO truck. TELO describes its truck as a vehicle with Toyota Tacoma capability, Tesla-like range and efficiency, in the footprint of a MINI Cooper.

Other OEMs are likely to fashion their own response to the growing small truck market.

Volkswagen has been on the fence of the diminutive truck debate for a while. The German OEM still hasn’t decided if it wants to play in Maverick’s sandbox.

There was chatter that Nissan and Mitsubishi were working on a new compact electric truck. But that was before the blight of tariffs hit automakers. Time will tell if it ever gets built.

ICYMI: Ford talked about building a new compact electric truck last week.

Chinese brands have options too. But we’re not likely to see those on Canadian or US roads any time soon.

Small trucks aren’t magic.

Beds are short, towing capacities are limited, and once you pile on off-road kits and premium trims, prices creep into midsize territory.

But the central promise holds: right-sized trucks that fit in your garage, your budget, and your life are finally here.

If Maverick sales are any indication, Americans from coast to coast to coast are ready to love small trucks.

Elon made a surprise touchdown in Bella Bella, a small town on British Columbia’s central coast. cbc.ca

Tesla is (still) under investigation for failing to report crashes involving its partially autonomous driving technology. theverge.com

Tesla raises the price of its most expensive Cybertruck by $15,000 in the US. reuters.com

When will US buyers get the chance to buy the three-row Tesla Model Y that just launched in China? Signs point to… never. theverge.com

Dongfeng Motors put its 50% stake in Dongfeng Honda Engine Company up for sale. reuters.com

The Geely Galaxy M9 full-size SUV started presales in China at around $27,040 USD. carnewschina.com

South Korean robotics giant WIRobotics has unveiled ALLEX, its first general-purpose humanoid robot. interestingengineering.com

Boston Dynamics and TRI use large behaviour models to train the Atlas humanoid. therobotreport.com

FieldAI raises $405M to build universal AI-driven robot brains. techcrunch.com

Renewable energy will overtake coal to become the world’s top source of electricity “by 2026 at the latest”, according to new forecasts from the International Energy Agency. cleantechnica.com

Eric Nuttall, partner and senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, said he is bearish on oil in the short term but bullish for the long term. He has natural gas as a better play for the next six months and will rotate back to oil in 2026, anticipating demand to increase. bnnbloomberg.ca

Battery materials startup Group14 announced it closed a $463 million funding round to expand manufacturing, a sign that investors remain confident in the future of EVs. techcrunch.com

With help from LiCAP Technologies, Nissan is gearing up for its first vehicles powered by all-solid-state EV batteries. electrek.co

We can turn cow shit into jet fuel. interestingengineering.com

ICYMI: Glencore (finally) picked up the pieces of Li-Cycle to expand its battery recycling business. glencore.com

Stellantis thinks what you really want is an “adventure mini-van”, unveils Chrysler Pacifica Grizzly Peak concept. caranddriver.com

GM has reiterated its commitment to produce the next-gen Chevy Silverado at the GM Oshawa Assembly Plant. gmauthority.com

VW was awarded 30 million euros ($35 million) to build the ID.1 in Portugal. electrek.co

VW’s electric vehicles outsell Tesla in Europe over recent months. Still, Chinese OEMs pose a threat to the German automaker. bloomberg.com

Waymo has been granted a permit to test its vehicles in NYC, the first such approval granted by the city. techcrunch.com

Nuro, the autonomous vehicle startup, secures $203 million funding round to develop its self-driving tech. Investors include Uber and Nvidia. theverge.com, techcrunch.com

Today, EV leases are cheaper than ICE vehicle leases in the US. bloomberg.com

Hertz will start selling pre-owned cars on Amazon. cnbc.com

Car rental startup Kyte, which once described itself as the “best competitor to Hertz,” shuts down. techcrunch.com

Y Combinator and General Catalyst-backed startup Oway raises $4M to build a decentralized “Uber for freight.” techcrunch.com

Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport says it is getting ready for the start of a new era of aviation as it prepares to support fully electric planes. cbc.ca

Canada drops many of its retaliatory tariffs on American products, but not on vehicles, steel, or aluminum. bloomberg.com

How are the CEOs of Ford, BYD, Lamborghini, Polestar, and more planning to survive the hellscape that is the current automotive world? WIRED asked them. wired.com

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Acclaimed author and award-winning journalist Lorraine Sommerfeld agreed to chat with me. You can find that interview on The Change Optimist podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or wherever else you get your podcasts.

I hope you are having a fantastic day!