Australia prepares to enter the HYBRID game, building for a familiar name.
Toyota to make hybrid car in Melbourne
Australian-made hybrid cars are set to hit the market in 2010, in what experts say will be an interim measure on the path towards a greener future.
After heavy government lobbying and tens of millions of dollars in subsidies, Toyota has confirmed it will produce 10,000 petrol-electric Camrys at its Altona plant in Melbourne.
The four-cylinder cars are expected to run on about 30 per cent less fuel.
Toyota is yet to set the price of the hybrid Camry, but it is expected to be several thousand dollars more than the existing standard Camry, which starts at about $30,000 for an automatic.
The imported Honda Civic hybrid costs about $33,000 and the Toyota Prius between $37,000-$47,000.
RACV chief engineer for vehicles Michael Case said the Camry’s advantage would be its size.
“It’s a bigger car that will be more attractive to families,” he said.
Monash University fellow and former chief of CSIRO Atmospheric Research Graeme Pearman told AAP the Toyota decision was a step in the right direction, but hybrids would be a phase.
“It’s not enough in the longer term but we have to do everything we can in the short term,” Dr Pearman said.
Hybrid cars worked best in “stop-start” driving, while supercharged diesel engines offered benefits for long distances, he said.
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t eventually have hybrid diesels,” Dr Pearman said.
“All of these things eventually will probably be only a transition to all-electric cars … once we have ways of generating the electricity that itself doesn’t generate greenhouse gas emissions.”
Making hybrids locally would equip the industry for the future because hybrid features, such as an electric drive system and regenerating braking, would transfer to electric cars, he said.
Tourism and Transport Forum national transport manager Stewart Prins agreed that hybrid cars were only bridging technology.
“Their development is welcome but they are not the long-term answer to the twin challenges of soaring petrol prices and greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Prins said.
The Toyota announcement was made simultaneously in Nagoya Japan, by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and in Altona by Victorian Premier John Brumby on Tuesday.
The federal government has given Toyota $35 million from its $500 million green car innovation fund to upgrade its production line - working out at $700 a car if the targets are met over the next five years.
The subsidy helped Australia beat competition from other countries like Thailand, which is understood to have offered Toyota $A12,000 a car.
Tags: 2010, Australia, Camry, Diesel, Electric, hybrid, Melbourne, petrol-electric, Toyota
