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By
EWAN KENNEDY
6 October 2008
Toyota is the world leader in hybrid car sales, with its Prius
leading the way by a huge margin. With financial assistance from
Australian governments anxious to be seen as moving in an
environmentally green direction, Toyota is to build a hybrid
variant of the best-selling Camry sedan in its Altona, Melbourne,
plant starting in early 2010.
However,
none of the Camry hybrid parts will be manufactured in this
country, instead they will be made in Japan and shipped here for
installation in locally-built bodies. This situation may change
when the next Camry model is introduced two or three years further
down the track, some hybrid components may then be sourced here.
We
have had a brief introductory drive of the Camry hybrid in
American format on a special road system inside the Toyota
factory. None of our testing was done on the open road or in real
traffic.
As
always with any hybrid we started our test by opening the boot to
see how much the fitment of a very large battery affects luggage
capacity. The answer is quite significantly; about a third of the
useable space inside the boot has gone. So one large suitcase will
go a long way towards filling it. However, if Toyota uses the
sportscar makers’ trick of retailing custom-made luggage for its
upcoming Camry hybrid you would be able to maximise the amount you
can carry.
There
is a fold-down rear seatback to try and improve usefulness, but
the width and height of any long loads is severely limited by a
tiny opening on the right-hand side of the boot.
The
large battery that robs the boot of so much space is there to
store energy that has been regained when the Camry hybrid is
braked. In fact, even decelerating without using the brakes
generates electricity that is pushed into the battery.
When
you need extra power for acceleration, overtaking or simply
climbing hills, electricity is taken from this battery to power an
electric motor to assist the Camry's petrol engine. Note that, at
least at this stage of development, all the electricity used to
drive the Camry hybrid is generated, directly or indirectly, by
the petrol engine. It does not need to be plugged into the mains
to be recharged.
Camry
hybrid has a four-cylinder petrol engine that is slightly down on
power compared to the standard 2.4-litre already sold here. It
differs from other Camry automatic models in driving through a
type of continuously variable transmission (CVT) instead of a
conventional automatic transmission. This is a further fuel saving
measure as well as the best way of tying the two motive
powerplants together. So not all of the fuel savings come from the
hybrid system, the drop in petrol-engine performance and the use
of the CVT are part of the solution.
During
our limited testing we found the Camry hybrid to have quite good
performance, it’s punch off the line when assisted by the
electric motor is good, but there were other times when it
didn’t feel as strong as the standard petrol model. Those
chasing maximum economy and minimum emissions are hardly going to
be chasing high-performance driving so the performance is likely
to prove more than adequate.
The
biggest advantage of a hybrid is that the petrol engine switches
off when the car is stationary, such as in heavy traffic. It kicks
in again when the Camry moves off. In fact, if you drive off
gently the Camry operates as a pure electric car for the first few
hundred metres. A spooky feeling because having the petrol engine
off makes the interior of the car eerily quiet.
Toyota
Camry hybrid has been sold in the USA since 2006 so there are
likely to be improvements to the model before the Aussie variants
join our market. Hybrid design is still in its infancy so the guys
are Toyota are continuously making their systems more efficient.
Thus gaining additional performance. There could also be
improvements in boot space if more energy can be squeezed into a
smaller battery pack.
It’s
too early to set a price for the new Camry hybrid, but based on
American pricing we anticipate it will cost about $3000 to $5000
more than the petrol-only model currently sold here.
We
wait with interest our first full road test of an Australian-made
Toyota Camry hybrid in 2010, in the meantime we will try and get
hold of one of the American imports to give it a longer run in
fair dinkum Australian conditions.
Interestingly,
Toyota's upmarket division, Lexus, actually offers more hybrid
models than does Toyota. In a clever marketing push the Lexus
models are aimed at performance with economy rather than economy
above all else. Demonstrating that clean doesn’t have to mean
boring.
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Marque Publishing Company
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