First glimpse of hybrid Camry at Sydney show

Australians will get their first up-close look at Toyota's forthcoming, locally-built hybrid Camry at the Sydney International Motor Show.

Due to begin production at the company's Altona plant towards the end of 2009, the hybrid Camry will make its first local appearance in left-hand drive US-spec. The Carsales Network has already driven the petrol/electric Camry (briefly) at Toyota's Altona manufacturing plant and can report that it is utterly silent in electric mode and respectably dynamic in a straight line.

Although that example was left-hand drive, there is little doubt from driving it along a short section of closed road used for NVH testing that the locally-built RHD version will have the potential to attract a strong following from those who prefer to buy Toyota, but have been put off by the fuel consumption of the Camry with the standard 2.4-litre petrol engine. It's a practical, easily implemented solution to a chink in the Toyota Camry armour. And for those who like their mid-size cars to be comfortable and quiet, the Camry Hybrid delivers that in spades as well.

The Camry hybrid will adopt technology already widely used across the Toyota/Lexus range and will be based on a four-cylinder engine, an electric motor, rear-mounted battery pack and a planetary CVT transmission as seen in the Prius, Lexus GS, LS and RX models.

As for the Prius, the production Camry Hybrid will store its electrical power for the drive motor in nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries -- technology that's likely to be a bit out of date by the time the car starts hitting dealer showrooms locally.

Mercedes-Benz and other car companies are working on lithium-ion batteries for hybrid-drive vehicles and Toyota itself will introduce the new generation batteries with the plug-in Prius hybrid that is due to go into production around the end of next year. In the meantime, production petrol/electric hybrids on Toyota production lines will stick with the proven reliability and more cost-effective Ni-MH technology.

The company claims the hybrid Camry will be faster and more fuel efficient than regular models, while emitting lower emissions in traffic.

Production of hybrid Camrys in Altona, where the plan is to roll 10,000 vehicles annually off the production line, will follow manufacture in Japan and the USA. It will also be built in Thailand.

On the Toyota stand in Sydney, the hybrid Camry will be joined by the spacey Hybrid X concept that was styled and developed in France. Featuring swivelling rear seats, drive by wire steering, LED headlights and custom 20-inch wheels, the Hybrid X is roughly Camry-size.

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