Melbourne show: Camry Hybrid countdown begins

THE Toyota Camry Hybrid will appear in public one year ahead of its official launch when it is unveiled at the Melbourne motor show starting tomorrow.

Toyota Australia will present the new green machine – the first hybrid model to be produced here – in concept form.

The Camry Hybrid will be based on a facelifted global version of the existing Camry, but it is expected to look different, with bumper and grille treatments to separate it from the petrol model.

Toyota Australia senior executive director of sales David Buttner has confirmed the Australian Camry will have some unique design cues. “There is change to front and rear, so we will pick up on those changes and add a couple of things ourselves through Toyota Technical Centre and Toyota Design Australia so we do bring some point of difference to the styling,” he said.

GoAuto understands the Camry Hybrid will cost around $4000 more than the standard Camry model.

The fuel consumption figure is yet to be determined and Toyota Australia is not prepared to guess at the number just in case the official figure comes out higher.

Toyota Australia corporate manager of product planning Peter Evans said he understood the new Camry Hybrid would have more than 20 per cent more power than the existing 117kW Camry, with the Hybrid combining the petrol engine’s 108kW and the electric motor’s 32kW for 140kW total.

It is not yet clear what size the four-cylinder engine will be, but it and the electric motor both will be imported.

Toyota Australia will also use the Melbourne show to present the third generation Prius hybrid that could go on sale as early as this July.

The new car has a larger 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and a more powerful electric motor. Even though it comes with performance improvements, the latest Prius is more economical than its predecessor.

That car achieved an official fuel consumption figure of 4.4L/100km, but Toyota Australia is hoping the new car might be able to hit or drop below the 4L/100km barrier, although it is unlikely the Prius will beat the upcoming Mini D diesel’s 3.9L/100km.

A popular feature with customers will be the solar panel in the sunroof to run an electric fan to circulate air into the interior when the car is parked in the sun, reducing the air-conditioning effort when the car is re-started, saving fuel.

While such a feature would not normally help the car achieve a better official fuel economy figure under the ADR81/02 test, Toyota will apply for the feature to be factored into the loading calculation applied to the vehicle on the test dyno.

Toyota’s show stand also features the lightweight 1/X hybrid concept car and extremely modified sporty versions of the Yaris and RAV4.

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