The Ultimate Utility Vehicle is the kind of design that leaps from the page and makes you blurt out, "What the hell is that thing!" Its ruggedized edges have all the makings of an off-road 4x4 with lots of aftermarket love, but the short, curved hood, cabin shape and B-pillar-adjacent rear door handles betray the fact that it's anything but. What it is is a heavily modified Sienna minivan planted atop the ladder frame of the Tacoma pickup.
The UUV reveal was buried in a press release about Toyota's work on a new North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, and there's really no additional information about it, save for the fact that it will travel on Toyota's 110-day, 16,500-mile (26,550-km) transcontinental Ever-Better Expedition. The trip kicked off in Plano earlier this week and will travel through some of America's most iconic and rugged regions, including Death Valley, Alaska, Route 66 and New York City.
The nine-Toyota convoy has been organized to get engineers and other employees out from behind the office and factory walls and into the world, experiencing the drives that Toyota vehicles are making on a daily basis. After the trip, the team will bring what it learned back to the office and apply it to future vehicle and equipment work. At least that's what Toyota planned
