2022 Toyota Tundra, 2023 Sequoia Are Powerful Siblings

Toyota debuted two new vehicles last week that look different, are priced differently and are meant for different buyers, but they’re also kind of the same thing.

During a media introduction for the 2022 Tundra with the new i-Force Max hybrid powertrain (including the new, top of the line Capstone trim), Toyota also brought along the 2023 Sequoia SUV. On the one hand, these are completely different beasts: the Tundra is a half-ton pick up truck and the Sequoia is a full-size SUV. On the other hand, they’re basically twins. Fraternal twins, but twins all the same. 

The reason lies in the parts of the vehicles that you can’t easily see, the platform architecture, which started life as the basis for the new global Land Cruiser but is also used in the new Tundra, Sequoia and the Lexus LX.

“Development started with the Tundra, and the main focus was the Tundra at first, but we always knew Sequoia was coming,” Craig Herring, Toyota senior engineering manager in R&D, told me. “We call it ‘brotherly.’ You have the Tundra and Sequoia, same design, same spec, everything. That helped out with development efficiency and cost because a lot of things are shared.”

The Tundra is offered with non-hybrid powertrain options, while the Sequoia can only be had with Toyota’s new i-Force Max hybrid powertrain, which was not created simply to improve fuel efficiency, but to make the large vehicles perform better. Toyota emphasized efficiency when it worked on the hybrid system in the Prius and the company’s other hybrids, but for the new Tundra and Sequoia, the mission was to create a “premium towing machine,” according to Mike Sweers, Toyota executive chief engineer for truck programs and commercial vehicles.

With the two-motor system in the Prius and its derivatives, the vehicle can’t have continuous torque 100 percent of the time, Sewers said. For the single-motor system used in the Sequoia and Tundra, Toyota developed parallel hybrid architecture so that there are two mechanical paths for the engine’s torque to reach the wheels. The V6 can drive the 10-speed transmission and thus power the wheels, the electric motor can supplement the torque from the engine or it can provide a second source of torque that can move the vehicle on its own, Sweers said. 

“Our whole focus for the driveline of this vehicle was making sure we have smooth power transitions and smooth shifting, and the torque converter allows us to do this,” he said.

All that hard work pays off when you get behind the wheel of the new Tundra (and, I have to assume, the new Sequoia as well, but we were not allowed to drive that one just yet. Herring admitted that, “they’re gonna drive very, very similar”). Cruising around Carmel, California in various trims of the big truck, with and without a full trailer, smooth is most assuredly an accurate description for how it drives. It’s not EV-smooth, but I never expect that level of pleasantness in a gas-powered ride. Another thing I didn’t expect was the Tundra’s dashboard telling me it detected a trailer during one jaunt when I most certainly did not have one attached, but that warning soon disappeared.

In terms of the design, the exterior of the Tundra and Sequoia are different behind the B pillar, but everything in the front of it, except for the grille, is basically the same. The interior is also similar between the two models when you’re comparing matching trims. Nice, chunky dials and buttons in the center stack, a large central touch screen, options for towing and various versions of 4WD capability are all present, hints that the upcoming 2023 Sequoia will be a much more capable vehicle than the outgoing model. 

“The current Sequoia is not made to be like an off-road thing, right? It was an afterthought, almost,” Herring said. “But [the new model] was developed from the beginning as a Land Cruiser, so the Sequoia has Land Cruiser DNA. This new Sequoia is much more off-road capable than the previous one, so it actually benefited from this kind of brotherly development.”