Camry Hybrid Details

[Poetic Justice]

about 40+orc for the top of the line which is the same as the petrol variant.

8 year 160,000km warranty on the battery, this warranty has also been made retrospective to previous models of the Prius Toyota is just that confident in them - was told today that Toyota knows only of up to 5 batteries that have been ordered in Australia so far.

same service costs as the petrol variant

the fuel usage analogy was that the amount of fuel required to drive a Commodore 13,000kms would drive the Camry hybrid 20,000km.

the drive was nice. a little bit smoother with the CVT, as well as a nicer feel through the wheel with electronic power steering.

I think it's an alright car. It's not something that is supposed to get you giddy and excited like when going out to drive a performance car, but for what it is aiming to be it certainly looks to have that all covered.

[vztrt]

Seems some aren't happy about the investment made by the givernment.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/to...719-10hux.html

Toyota caught up in state campaign spat
PAUL AUSTIN
July 20, 2010

LABOR is trying to drive a wedge between business and the Liberals in the lead-up to November's state election, after the Victorian opposition labelled as a flop Toyota's decision to build so-called green cars in Melbourne.

Treasurer John Lenders has written to Toyota to reassure it of the Brumby government's continued financial backing of the company's plan to produce 10,000 hybrid Camrys a year at its Altona plant.

''Unfortunately, I have been forced to write this letter after the state opposition criticised our investment support for the production of the hybrid,'' Mr Lenders told Toyota Australia president Max Yasuda on Friday.

''We are proud of the fact that we have a strong working relationship with Toyota and that this has protected Victorian jobs.

''I hope this new stance from the opposition does not impact upon any further investment decisions by Toyota.''

Mr Lenders' letter was prompted by an opposition attack on Premier John Brumby's decision to back the Camry project with an assistance package believed be worth up to $35 million.

Opposition manufacturing spokesman Ryan Smith last week branded the hybrid Camry ''experiment'' a failure.

Mr Smith said only about 3000 had been sold since the petrol-electric car went on sale in mid-February, despite heavy government subsidies and ''a climate of booming car sales''.

He accused Labor of ''blowing'' public money, and likened the hybrid car to the myki ticketing system as a project that had cost taxpayers millions of dollars because of Labor incompetence.

''It is clear that John Brumby failed to do the work required to make sure this project stacked up before he spent $35 million to ensure a series of self-promoting photo opportunities,'' Mr Smith said.

''Toyota is only committed to the hybrid Camry for as long as they are selling, and with dismal sales figures, John Brumby's claims about supporting local jobs with this project are looking more and more shaky.''

Mr Lenders last night said the opposition's stance showed that a Liberal state government would pose a threat to jobs.

He said Coalition leader Ted Baillieu was ''set to be the biggest job-killer since the global financial crisis''.

Mr Smith said the Coalition recognised the car industry's importance to Victoria's economy and would continue to support it in government.

But he said taxpayer support ''should be provided transparently and in a way designed to ensure maximum value for money''.

''Victorians understand, accept and support comprehensive and well-monitored grants programs to help business, but they also expect government to be accountable on whether their money is being spent properly or wasted,'' Mr Smith said.

He said taxpayers deserved to know ''whether any due diligence was conducted before tens of millions of dollars was given to Toyota''.

Toyota spokesman Glenn Campbell said the company acknowledged the Victorian and federal governments' continuing ''strong support'' of the car industry.

''By working together, the industry can evolve to meet the demands of global competition, changing economic conditions and a carbon constrained world,'' he said.

[Ohio XB]

He accused Labor of ''blowing'' public money, and likened the hybrid car to the myki ticketing system as a project that had cost taxpayers millions of dollars because of Labor incompetence.

Somebody help me here. Is he saying that the labor force has "blown public money" and otherwise incompetently wasted tax payer's money?

How do the people building the cars have anything to do with the public just not wanting hybrids? Gasoline is not mega-expensive like it was a year and a half, two years ago. That's when there was a huge demand for hybrids, when gasoline prices reach astronomical levels. People don't want a hybrid as much as they want "something" that will save them money on gasoline when the prices are crazy. Otherwise, they (generally) want more of a real car.


I just read an article today, not yet available to the public that I know of, that the Camry Hybrid sales in Australia are far below projections and expectations. The Government seems to have bought the most, after contributing $35 million AUD already for the project. I hope Toyota gave them a big "thank you" after double dipping like that; getting the aide money, then getting money for the cars they got the money to build.


Steve

[SB076]

We have two main politcal parties in Australia (Labor and Liberal) In the sentence you have quoted, the author is suggesting that the Labor party (political party) has been blowing away public money

[irlewy86]

Never mind.

Shocked that the fleet managers haven't spent up big on Camry hybrids.

[redman]

Originally Posted by Ohio XB

Somebody help me here. Is he saying that the labor force has "blown public money" and otherwise incompetently wasted tax payer's money?

...


Steve

Steve, it is election time here. Now for Federal government, and November for the Victorian government. There are two main political parties capable of winning enough seats to form government; Labor and Liberal, which are 'leftish" and "rightish" respectively. At present, Federal and Victorian state governments are both Labor, and each have an interesting view on how best to throw away taxpayer's money.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by irlewy86

Never mind.

Shocked that the fleet managers haven't spent up big on Camry hybrids.

Im predicting similar with EcoBoost Falcon. Fleets have moved to the $20,000 C-segment, they aint coming back.

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Im predicting similar with EcoBoost Falcon. Fleets have moved to the $20,000 C-segment, they aint coming back.

Half of me agrees with you & the other half does not. I hope your wrong but, becuase if I4T fails like Hybrid Camry has, I think you could very well kiss good bye to local Falcon production.

Normal petrol Camry still sells pretty sell, they have just not moved over to Hybrid ones.. I think??

I'm suprise about the low sales of the Hybrid.. I thought they were going to sell like hot cakes..

[JimNiki]

Originally Posted by Brazen

Excellent value! the top of the line Hybrid Camry Luxury, with leather, push button start, sat nav, elec seats, optitron instruments, rear view camera..etc is cheaper than a Falcon XT

Perfect then ! what is the towing capacity? I might get one! .... NOT!

I want to know what is the official warranty on the batteries? Is it 10 years? Is it 400,000km? If not, then why not< (for such a major outlay).

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

Half of me agrees with you & the other half does not. I hope your wrong but, becuase if I4T fails like Hybrid Camry has, I think you could very well kiss good bye to local Falcon production.

Normal petrol Camry still sells pretty sell, they have just not moved over to Hybrid ones.. I think??

I'm suprise about the low sales of the Hybrid.. I thought they were going to sell like hot cakes..

While Im not hopeful of massive sales success in Australia, I do think the EcoBoost engine gives Ford a massive oppurtunity for export of the Falcon to nearly every major market in the world.

EcoBoost is the way of the future, I just think its a very very hard sell with it as a premium option over the fantastic I6.

[Brazen]

Originally Posted by JimNiki

Perfect then ! what is the towing capacity? I might get one! .... NOT!

I want to know what is the official warranty on the batteries? Is it 10 years? Is it 400,000km? If not, then why not< (for such a major outlay).

I think the battery warranty is 8 years.

And the towing capacity is...wait for it..... 0kg.

Toyota officially do not have a tow rating for it, so nothing can be hitched to it.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Joe5619

I'm suprise about the low sales of the Hybrid.. I thought they were going to sell like hot cakes..

It could be that fleets are waiting on the age/klm threshold to approach before changing over - they haven't exactly been out long. Then there is the additional cost of the Hybrid over the petrol version as well which could be an obstacle.

In the govt fleet carpark at work there is 1 Hybrid Camry. 1 new petrol version as well, and probably another three or four that wont be changed over for another year.

If the Ecoboost Falcon has a credible emissions and L/100klm output, then you can expect the Falcon to be reinstated on the purchasing lists of government fleets - I would expect widespread Camry operators like government departments to fall all over the Ecoboost Falcon simply because of the superior ride quality, space and features over the Camry, provided that the Falcon will be cost competitive to fleets.

[Bossxr8]

Hybrids just don't sell here, they are nothing but a ****. Surely Toyota knew it wasn't going to be very popular, even the Prius can barely sell 200 a month and its the hybrid poster boy.

[JimNiki]

I've said this before ... Toyota say that most of their cars will be available in hybrid by 2020. They say this because they know that there no realistic new runaway technology to replace hybrids in the mean time... What does this tell us? It tells ME to stop dreaming about an all electric vehicle to replace the family sedan ... probably in my lifetime, and that the combustion engine will still be king when I'm old and grey!

Until countries like china and india stop polluting the world, all these first world hybrid sales are strictly token gestures only bought by the well intentioned but naive and uninformed...

[JayB]

One of my mates is a Sheriff, he has got a Petrol Camry as a work car and he drives the Hybrid Camry around sometimes, I got to drive it the other day. Whoa! Do they fly, 0 - 100 in 7.8secs (Quickest we got it) there is some "power lag" from where it changes from electric to petrol.

We went to a private road and got it up to 160 in around 24secs, that variable gearbox works so good!

So we got the Petrol Camry and the Hybrid Camry and took them for a drive and it was actually giving the Petrol one a run for it's money. If it wasn't for the lag that Hybrid would've easily beaten that Petrol version due to the variable gearbox.

The Hybrid's aren't something to underestimate ;)

[XR Martin]

Petrol Camry is quicker than the Hybrid, yet the Hybrid does 0-100 in 7.8 secs?
Is that a joke? Camry is no where near that fast, or are you talking the Aurion?

[Nikked]

The Camry looks good now, the new bumper design does alot for it.

[irlewy86]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

Hybrids just don't sell here, they are nothing but a ****. Surely Toyota knew it wasn't going to be very popular, even the Prius can barely sell 200 a month and its the hybrid poster boy.

Toyota always claimed that they could only get a limited allocation of Prius' each month and they were sold well in advance. The Camry is cheaper and much more available yet floundering. I think maybe Toyota have been listening to their own marketing department and not the actual market.

[prydey]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Petrol Camry is quicker than the Hybrid, yet the Hybrid does 0-100 in 7.8 secs?
Is that a joke? Camry is no where near that fast, or are you talking the Aurion?

i think he forgot the 1 = 17.8!

i also doubt you can use the lack of hybrid sales to predict what may or may not be the case with the ecoboost. falcons and commodores will always sell more than camry's in australia.

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by JayB

One of my mates is a Sheriff, he has got a Petrol Camry as a work car and he drives the Hybrid Camry around sometimes, I got to drive it the other day. Whoa! Do they fly, 0 - 100 in 7.8secs (Quickest we got it) there is some "power lag" from where it changes from electric to petrol.
We went to a private road and got it up to 160 in around 24secs, that variable gearbox works so good

;)

You gotta love the use of our taxpayers money. The government gave $35 million to Toyota to build a car that they were already gonna build, then they dont sell. Then the ones that the governments do buy for their departments, the employees use to break the speed limit, and do 160kmh thus creating far more emissions than necessary.

Toyotas logo maybe "oh what a feeling", but i'm sure somewhere in their head office, it would be "hawr hawr hawr, ru rostralians ar saw funny"

[aussie muscle]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

You gotta love the use of our taxpayers money. The government gave $35 million to Toyota to build a car that they were already gonna build, then they dont sell.

That 35 mill is just from the Vic govt. don't forget to throw in the pot from the federal government. talk about an expensive hybrid.

[arm79]

What about exports? There were plans to export the hybrid across the region.

It might be a sales flop in Australia, but as a manufacturing program it may be a success.

Who really cares if the 35 mil bought us an Australian sales success or not. If they are exporting enough to make up the difference, then I'm happy to see its keeping an extra 1000 Victorian people in jobs, regardless of where the cars go.

If that money has bought us nothing. No new jobs, technology or knowhow, then yes, they have something to answer for.

Just remember, technically the petrol Camry and Aurion are flops on the Australian market. If there wasn't a big export program for them, there would be no Toyota manufacturing plant at all.

Although Mr Buttner (executive vice-president of sales and marketing) would not be drawn on the future of Aurion, any decline in the current 14,000 units a year – already down 29 per cent on last year – is likely to colour a decision on investment by Toyota for a replacement model in about two years.

Maybe our 35 mil bought us a niche model to supplement the falling sales of other Toyota models to help keep the plant viable.

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by arm79

What about exports? There were plans to export the hybrid across the region.
It might be a sales flop in Australia, but as a manufacturing program it may be a success.
Who really cares if the 35 mil bought us an Australian sales success or not. If they are exporting enough to make up the difference, then I'm happy to see its keeping an extra 1000 Victorian people in jobs, regardless of where the cars go.
If that money has bought us nothing. No new jobs, technology or knowhow, then yes, they have something to answer for.
Just remember, technically the petrol Camry and Aurion are flops on the Australian market. If there wasn't a big export program for them, there would be no Toyota manufacturing plant at all.
Maybe our 35 mil bought us a niche model to supplement the falling sales of other Toyota models to help keep the plant viable.

From my knowledge, there are no current exports (abeit there may be some to NZ), of the Toyota Camry (hybrid).
I dont think Toyota put on any new employees as a response to building the hybrid camry. It didnt add to any technology in Australia as the product was already designed (and are being built) in Japan. It is simply being shipped here, unboxed and plopped into a car. No more technically advanced than a shelf packer at cheap as chips unloading a box of hats, imported from china.

So iguess, if it bought us no new jobs, or technology, then yes, they have something to answer for.

[Ohio XB]

Originally Posted by redman

Steve, it is election time here. Now for Federal government, and November for the Victorian government. There are two main political parties capable of winning enough seats to form government; Labor and Liberal, which are 'leftish" and "rightish" respectively. At present, Federal and Victorian state governments are both Labor, and each have an interesting view on how best to throw away taxpayer's money.

Thanks guys, that clears that up for me. In the US the Liberal party is left (tax you more to give it to people that don't want to work for it) and the right is the Republican party. Labor is the workforce here, thus my comment.


I had not read anything about any Hybrid Camrys having been exported yet, so not looking good on that front either.

In the US the hybrid Fusion sells quite well, but it has no sacrifices and thus is very appealing at 41 MPG. The hybrid Escape sells well too, relevent to hybrid vehicles of course. Hybrids are still only 2% or 3% of our whole car market.



Steve

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by Ohio XB

In the US the hybrid Fusion sells quite well, but it has no sacrifices and thus is very appealing at 41 MPG. The hybrid Escape sells well too, relevent to hybrid vehicles of course. Hybrids are still only 2% or 3% of our whole car market.
Steve

I think that there is a big difference between the US and the Australian car market, and as a result, the governments handle it quite differently. Even in a bad year, the US makes 1 car (10 million) for every 30 citizens (300 million). Last year Australia made 1 car (220,000) for every 100 (22 million) citizens. Plus obviously some of the majors are based in the US.

The americans tend to let the market sort it self out, whereas in australia, the australian government is continually trying to steer the industry in a path that is less than catastrophic.

As a result, most times the americans will get cars that they want, and are willing to buy, whereas in australia, we get cars that some politician wants and are willing to buy.

[outback_ute]

Bob are you sure that 10 mil is the domestic production amount excluding imported cars? Including cars from Mexico and Canada?

I 100% agree with you on the Vic govt grant though, it was a major embarrassment for the government when Toyota did know know about the grant when they announced the decision to make the hybrids here. It seems there has been an effort to hide that, I will need to take more time to find the reports than I can do at the moment - do you remember that?

[bobthebilda]

Originally Posted by outback_ute

Bob are you sure that 10 mil is the domestic production amount excluding imported cars? Including cars from Mexico and Canada?

Well depending on what articles you read, they do mix sales with production, they do mix US with North America, and they do mix cars with commercials, but as per following article, and from others, i think it peaked a few years back at 12 to 13 million, but has dropped recently.

http://www.chinacarreports.com/blog/...car-production

[barra265t]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

.. It is simply being shipped here, unboxed and plopped into a car. No more technically advanced than a shelf packer at cheap as chips unloading a box of hats, imported from china....

you've summed up Toyota's Australia operations nicely when compared to what Ford, Holden and formerly Mitsubishi have to do to produce true local Australian cars.

[JayB]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

You gotta love the use of our taxpayers money. The government gave $35 million to Toyota to build a car that they were already gonna build, then they dont sell. Then the ones that the governments do buy for their departments, the employees use to break the speed limit, and do 160kmh thus creating far more emissions than necessary

:P :P

i think he forgot the 1 = 17.8!

Nope... Didn't forget the 1 If he ever gets the Hybrid again i'll have to get a video for you guys to watch.

Petrol Camry is quicker than the Hybrid, yet the Hybrid does 0-100 in 7.8 secs? Is that a joke? Camry is no where near that fast, or are you talking the Aurion?

Yeah mate, It was an Aurion ;) My mistake

[Ohio XB]

Originally Posted by bobthebilda

I think that there is a big difference between the US and the Australian car market, and as a result, the governments handle it quite differently. Even in a bad year, the US makes 1 car (10 million) for every 30 citizens (300 million). Last year Australia made 1 car (220,000) for every 100 (22 million) citizens. Plus obviously some of the majors are based in the US.

The americans tend to let the market sort it self out, whereas in australia, the australian government is continually trying to steer the industry in a path that is less than catastrophic.

As a result, most times the americans will get cars that they want, and are willing to buy, whereas in australia, we get cars that some politician wants and are willing to buy.

There is definately a difference in market size. Here in the US the market peaked at 16 - 17 million vehicles a year. During the crash it went to 10 million a year. We are hoping for a rebound to about 13 million a year.

As for Americans getting what they want, yes, that is true for selection for the most part. The Government is still trying to dictate things though, passing laws which will shape the cars to come.

By the way, the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid has just set a record. It is being offered at the same price as the gasoline engined car.


Steve