A horde of hybrids is forecast to drive Australia deeper into the electrification of cars.
As other brands flick the switch to a fully electric future, with the Jaguar I-PACE taking the fight to Tesla, Hyundai pushing hard with its Ioniq and the second-generation Nissan Leaf expected soon, Toyota still has all its chips on hybrids.
It set the standard with the original Prius from 1997 and, as it accelerates towards a wide range of next-generation plug-in hybrids, the boss of Toyota Australia still sees a Prius-style progress plan working for the company in the short and medium terms.
“I definitely think electric cars are coming to Australia, but the question really is how quickly and in what volumes will they come to Australia,” Matt Callachor, the president of Toyota Australia, tells carsales.
“When we brought out an expert from IHS Markit, who are a global expert on electric vehicles . . . about their analysis on electric vehicles globally, they said the electric vehicle adoption rate will vary by various country.
“Their forecast for cars for Australia was the mid 2020s.”
Callachor says Toyota sees the power of battery-electric cars but is happy with the latest successes of its hybrids.
His sentiments come only days after the president of General Motors, Mark Reuss, described plug-in hybrids as a flawed engineering solution.
“With Camry, close to 50 per cent of the mix is hybrid. And it’s over 40 per cent on Corolla. People want the vehicles,” Callachor argued.
“This isn’t being driven by extra discounts, it’s people wanting the vehicles.”
Callachor concedes that some countries are pushing much faster towards full-scale battery electric motoring, but says China is leading the way because of a unique set of incentives.
“There is extensive infrastructure development. Enormous incentives, or regulation, and CO2 policy. Government incentives,” he says.
“They (IHS) had seen degrees of that in other countries. But no-one has been able to pull that mix together successfully, long term. To change people’s attitude and what they see as normal.”
He contrasts that situation with Toyota’s view of hybrids, and their current advantage over electric cars.
“What we are seeing is, most noticeably in 2019 and beyond, is that hybrid engines have been around for a long time but what we’re really seeing is that acceptance of hybrid engines is dramatically increased. They don’t have to worry about the range anxiety.
“So you can see attitudes to petrol-electric, into the future, changing.”
Extracted from Motoring