Car companies rarely let outsiders into their design centres and check out the new models it has under development.

But Toyota Australia has done just that, opening the doors to its Port Melbourne product design centre so we can check out three new versions of the top-selling HiLux pick-up.

These HiLux models were designed in Australia, two of them just for the local market and one to be sold under various names in other global regions.

Watch the footage here:

The star of the show was the Rugged X, with its steel bumper, snorkel and bright red recovery hitches.

Not only is it touted as the most capable off-roader to wear the HiLux badge, it’s also going to be the most expensive HiLux ever, with a starting price north of $60,000.

But with HiLux Australia’s most popular seller and three other one-tonne pick-ups in the top 10, the local demand for them seems unquenchable.

Developing these three HiLuxes is the biggest job Toyota Australia’s design office has had since it designed the locally-manufactured Aurion last decade.

It’s an important and timely boost as car company design offices are usually tethered to local manufacturing and engineering divisions.

These days Toyota Australia Product Design has neither to rely on. But its boss insists it can not only survive, but grow.

“We have demonstrated to our parent in Japan we can design remotely, even on a production level project,” Rod Ferguson, General Manager of Toyota Australia product planning and development, said.

“We can do sketch programs and they can be done around the world, but to do a production level project that’s when the remoteness of the location really tests you out.

“We have done this one [HiLux] and we have a couple more underway, so we are trying to get around that traditional thing that engineering and manufacturing have to be right next to each other.”