Toyota Australia has confirmed it will trial battery electric vehicles (BEVs) Down Under. The trials will commence during 2009, Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss, David Buttner, told the Carsales Network.
Speaking at the pre-Melbourne International Motor Show unveiling of the third-generation Prius and HCCV Camry Hybrid show car (more here), Buttner confirmed the company would trial Japanese model Prius plug-in hybrids later this year.
"We're, in fact, going to bring [plug-in] vehicles in [to Australia] at a point of time this year," Buttner revealed, adding: "a couple for evaluation [will come to Australia] and we will do exactly what they're doing in Japan -- we will put them out to fleets."
The plug-in BEV is based on the second generation Prius. Unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show, the vehicles are now on limited evaluation release in Japan and some other markets. Buttner says the vehicles will play a role in determining Toyota's BEV strategy for Australia.
"We're going to have them in the country again [like with original hybrid Prius] as an education exercise, to gain and solicit feedback from those fleets [we place the cars with]," he explained.
When quizzed on a potential 'to-market' date for the Toyota BEV, Buttner was non-committal, preferring to bring the green vehicle focus back onto Toyota's current and future hybrid models.
"I don't know [when plug-in will go on sale]," Buttner stated.
"Naturally as the technology evolves you want to make sure that you're bringing the latest technology to the marketplace. Given that it's [plug-in Prius] relatively new in Japan, it'll go through the various iterations there, and evaluations and manufacturing and specification reviews [before it's announced for sale].
"There's no doubt at some point in time we'll introduce a plug-in hybrid. But this [Prius and Camry] is the technology for the moment -- it's tried and proven technology going into its third generation and it's been very successful. And we expect it to continue to be successful," he opined.
The Toyota trial of BEV brings to four the number of Japanese manufacturers that have committed to EV trials in Australia. Nissan, Mitsubishi and Subaru have all stated the BEVs could join their respective local model line-ups within three years.