Capitalising on the trend for large city cars, Toyota has released its largest every SUV – the Sequoia.

Named after one of the largest trees in the world, this 5.2-metre long and 1.8-metre-tall beast is based on the Tundra pickup and has already been on sale in the US but Toyota’s head engineer, Motoharu Araya, says that the company conducted research in the M.E. and found that many SUV owners with large families use their cars for on-road driving – that’s why performance and comfort are its main design points and why it’ll fit up to eight people.

Toyota has installed a 5.7-litre V8 that develops 381bhp and 401lb ft through a six-speed automatic.

The Seqouia will be available in three models: the SR5, Limited and Platinum, ranging from $ 40,500 to $ 58,500 for the range-topper.