Australia has joined Japan, the US,
China and Thailand as the fifth country to start production of the
Toyota Camry Hybrid. Toyota Australia marked the start of pilot
production yesterday in what will see full production underway late
this year with the car going on sale from January 10, 2010 .
Victorian Premier John Brumby and Federal Minister for Innovation,
Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr officially pushed
the button to start production. They were flanked by Toyota Australia
president and chief executive officer, Max Yasuda.
Mr Yasuda said the introduction of
hybrid technology in Toyota's local manufacturing was one of the most
significant developments in the company's 50-year history in
Australia. “This has the potential to change the automotive
landscape forever,” he said. “Toyota is working towards a
sustainable local automotive industry that supported jobs, innovation
and, ultimately, a prosperous low-carbon society.”
In the pilot production phase, Toyota
produces a small batch of vehicles to test all processes, parts and
assembly methods. Yesterday's event was essentially for the media
with pilot vehicles already being tested by Toyota. Last week
Toyota's dealer advisor group were treated to driving the hybrid at
Sydney's Eastern Creek race track.
“They were blown away with the
product,” said Toyota's director sales and marketing, Dave Buttner. Mr Buttner said Toyota were committed
to hybrid technology, but had not closed the door on any other power
sources. By 2020 Toyota is aiming to having a hybrid option within
every model range, he said. Toyota has spent the past 40 years
developing hybrid technology.
Mr Buttner said pricing for the Camry
Hybrid was yet to be decided, but hinted it would be in the same
order that diesel powered cars were compared to petrol. “I think
the difference between diesel and petrol is about $3500 so we would
not want to be too far from that,” he said.
Toyota President, Max Yasuda
Toyota is hoping to sell 10,000 Camry
Hybrid cars a year, plus a further 300 will be exported to New
Zealand. Camry Hybrid's introduction to the Toyota plant at Altona
near Melbourne has meant significant changes to production processes,
to allow for major changes including the installation of new,
high-tech, equipment.
“We have re-engineered many of our
manufacturing processes to improve ergonomics, specifically for the
installation of hybrid components,” said Mr Yasuda. More than 3200
people work at the Altona plant. The new Camry Hybrid uses what
Toyota calls Hybrid Synergy Drive which makes the use of two power
sources: a petrol engine working with an electric motor. The Camry
Hybrid to be manufactured at Altona is a mid-life update with Toyota
Australia hoping it will also be able to produce the next generation
Camry Hybrid. Toyota is planning to introduce eight new hybrid models
in the next four years.
Toyota says the nickel-metal hydride
batteries in Prius and Camry Hybrid have been designed to last the
life of the vehicle. Toyota has sold more than 13,000 Prius Hybrid
vehicles in Australia and the performance of the batteries has been
`outstanding.'
Prius taxis have been driven for more
than 350,000 kilometres on the original battery. “We have only had
to replace a handful of batteries for
mileage-related reasons – and they had all done more more than
400,000 km,” said Toyota's product planning manager, Ashley
Edwards.
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