Local Hybrid future unclear

It wasn't so much Chinese as Japanese Whispers that were circulating through Toyota ranks and the halls of Tokyo Motor Show last week -- at least as far the Australian production of a hybrid Camry is concerned.

As reported late last week, senior Toyota officials all but killed the project -- and, indeed, cast doubts on Australian production as a whole -- when quizzed about the program by an eager Australian press corp.

In a time-limited audience with Toyota Motor Corporation, President, Katsuaki Watanabe, the Aussie media were told simply: "We are studying what we should do with that particular point [building a hybrid in Australia]. At this juncture I cannot say anything more precise than that."

Later Watanabe's number two, Executive Vice President Global Planning Operations, Tokuichi Uranishi, intimated the Australia dollar and the potential of lower import tariffs could threaten Toyota's long-term production plans Down Under. The senior exec, who is fluent in English, nevertheless made it clear it was his hope to introduce a hybrid Camry into the local market as soon as possible.

"Already we have the hybrid Camry in right-hand drive, mainly targeting Thailand, therefore I don't think it will take so long [to introduce the car to Australia].

"Definitely the next generation Camry, but I'm thinking of the possibility of introducing hybrid version even with the current generation. It depends on the government," Uranishi said, again raising the subject of tariffs.

Powertrain Development Exec VP, Masatami Takimoto, said Australian hybrid sales volume would need to increase significantly to shorten the time it would take for Toyota to recover its investment and ensure production took place locally. Takimoto cited US hybrid volumes as the reason the company had taken the step of producing the car in-country.

Takimoto said that while Australian government assistance would help, sales volumes would be the key factor.

The company's Executive Vice President R&D, Kazuo Okamoto, was perhaps the most optimistic commenting that in the longer term Australia was at least technically able to build the model.

"Maybe [Australia be a good place to make a Camry hybrid]. Hybrid system is a very delicate system. We are narrowing down the list of candidate countries for production and I think in a little while we will be able to increase volume so we will be able then to disperse production in several countries," Okamoto said.

"The Camry Hybrid will be our main hybrid system, so production in Australia is very likely… [But] Probably not within the lifetime of this current model… Maybe the next generation model, by that time for sure."

Putting the clearest local perspective on the potential for a hybrid Camry program was Toyota Australia's product planning chief, Doug Soden.

"There's not a real export market for us [for hybrid] but we are considering hybrid locally," Soden confirmed.

"We've got enough volume in Australia potentially to pull a hybrid out but it's in the study stage at the moment," he said. "Dates aren't confirmed -- long or short term."

"You can't just snap your fingers. This is a longer term thing -- we're studying it at the moment, we're talking to Japan… There's a whole range of things that need to happen -- for example in the US they have quite significant subsidies on hybrid vehicles. From memory it's to the tune of $3500-4000 and it makes it worth considering as a manufacturer when there's that sort of money out there [to offset purchasers costs]," Soden said.