New Toyota Hilux: This Is Toyota's First Electric Pickup Truck

[Dorbiman]

Footprint is the area enclosed by the points where the four tires touch the ground. It's the wheelbase multiplied by the average track width.

Yup. My point is that increasing length + width but maintaining the same height would result in some goofy proportions. By continuing to increase track width and length, the designers almost inevitably have to increase the height to maintain the same shape. What results is a comically tall vehicle.

So to qualify for the less stringent targets, they increase the length + width. To compensate for the larger footprint, the height increases as well to maintain the profile. But this is conjecture on my part, for sure.