If you want a Toyota, buy a hybrid

COMMENT

Hybrids have come of age. Or more particularly, Toyota hybrids have...

Put aside for a minute the Japanese giant’s cynical labelling of its conventional hybrid models as “self-charging” – a term that Norway took Toyota to task over and banned it from using.

Fact of the matter is, now in mid-COVID Australia, buying a hybrid Toyota Corolla, Toyota RAV4 or Toyota Camry finally adds up.

This hasn’t happened overnight.

Not so long ago at all, Toyota hybrids were more about making a statement than making sense. The technology was at times clunky and except for some very narrow-use cases, the economy the hybrids claimed was hard to achieve.

They were also expensive to buy.

In the last few years, however, there’s been progress. Significant progress.

With not too much song and dance, Toyota (and Lexus) has incrementally improved its hybrid technology and the cars’ real-world operation is much closer to the promises long made.

At the same time, Toyota has increased the number of models in which hybrid systems are offered. That the model expansion has moved the hybrid drive systems into cars that didn’t scream ‘look at me, I’m saving the world’ is a bonus in my book.

Even more importantly, in each update and generation, Toyota has also effectively trimmed the cost difference between equivalent petrol and petrol-electric models. It can now be in the order of $1500 or less when the bargaining is done.

Better real-world economy (for which we can vouch via our seven-day tests), combined with modest price increments to choose hybrid, means the payback period of the electrified Toyotas is shorter than it has ever been.

It makes the decision to go hybrid much easier – and that’s before you factor in that in the case of Corolla, RAV4 and Camry, the hybrids are probably the pick of the powertrains in terms of driving appeal.

Indeed, thanks to that extra lump of EV torque, all of the electrified models are frankly better to drive both on a trip and, most importantly, day-to-day.

And then there’s the question of resale and what we all increasingly reference – total cost of ownership (TCO).

Our good mates at RedBook.com.au reckon TCO on Toyota hybrids has definitely improved. Indeed, RedBook says the resale of Toyota hybrids now betters their conventionally-engined counterparts – and they believe the gap will continue to increase.

In the case of cars like the Toyota Corolla SX Hybrid they’re projecting better than 82 per cent retained value over three years and, over five years, the mid-grade hybrid RAV4 has almost five per cent better retained value than its conventional counterpart.

By the by, these positive moves are in sharp contrast to battery EVs, which RedBook projects will have significantly lower retained values than their petrol counterparts even in five years’ time.

If this looks like an unpaid ad for Toyota, I apologise. The rapid turnaround of hybrid efficiency both in fiscal and energy terms is something that frankly not so long ago, I would have dismissed as greenwashing.

Now, I’m not saying that the hybrid Toyota Corolla, Toyota RAV4 or Toyota Camry are necessarily the best choice of vehicle in their respective segment (personally, I go Hyundai i30, Mazda CX-5 and Skoda Octavia!).

Nor am I, for a moment, suggesting that the end of the conventional petrol-engined car is nigh.

Rather, if you are in the market for the popular Toyota models I’ve mentioned, the hip pocket and the seat of the pants finally agree.

And the message is – you’d have rocks in your head not to at least very seriously consider the hybrid alternative.