New Toyota Prado Hybrid now unlikely for Australia

Toyota Australia isn’t sure the 2024 Toyota Prado hybrid available overseas is the right fit for Aussies, despite announcing that eight of its passenger car and SUV models will now be offered exclusively as hybrids.

Speaking to local media at a press briefing this morning, Toyota Australia sales, marketing and franchise operations vice-president Sean Hanley said there were question marks over the suitability of the new 250 Series LandCruiser Prado’s hybrid powertrain for local consumer requirements.

“It’s actually a performance hybrid… and this is what we’re investigating: whether that performance hybrid, for what our Prado is used for, is the right drivetrain for this vehicle in this country,” he said.

“I do see hybrid as a tangible alternative for this vehicle at some point and I’d love to get hold of one – we’ve just got to make sure it’s the right engine for the kinds of things people in Australia will want to do with that Prado.

“It’s definitely something we’re looking at – 100 per cent, of course we are. But [it’s] not confirmed and there’s a lot of water still to go under that bridge.”

These comments loosely echo those made by Hanley in March about the prospects for a local release of the full-hybrid Prado, which is the only 250 Series ‘LandCruiser’ sold in the US but is yet to be confirmed for or produced in right-hand drive.

The hybrid powertrain itself is the Japanese car-maker’s 2.4-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol/electric system – as seen in the latest Toyota Tacoma, 4Runner and Lexus RX – outputting a tangy 243kW/630Nm in the Prado sold overseas.

But unlike the mild-hybrid four-cylinder turbo-diesel that will finally give the Prado a segment-appropriate 3500kg maximum braked towing capacity in Australia this year, the US-market Prado hybrid's towing capacity is limited to just 6000lb (2722kg).

Electrification is yet to become widely available in Australia’s large off-road SUV segment, in which the recently released GWM Tank 300 and bigger 500 were the first models to offer a full-hybrid system.

However, like the Prado hybrid, they too are aimed more at performance than outright efficiency or even off-road capability.

Hanley said Toyota Australia needed to prove to its parent company that it would be worthwhile engineering and producing the Prado hybrid in RHD form, even going as far as saying it would need to generate Kluger-like annual sales.

“If we wanted a right-hand drive version of that car, we’d have to do serious volume – you’d be talking Kluger-type volumes of that model,” he said.

“That’s the only way you’d get an OE [Original Equipment] conversion to even look at the business case.

“We’re doing well over 12,000 Klugers in a year or thereabouts, so that’s the kind of volume you’d need to get an OE conversion from Toyota Motor’s North American plant.

“At this stage that’s not on the agenda and certainly nothing that we’ve confirmed and or even studied to that point, to be honest.”

All Australian Prados will be powered by a 48-volt mild-hybrid version of Toyota’s familiar 150kW/500Nm 2.8-litre turbo-diesel, as per selected 2024 HiLux variants, driving all four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Huge demand is expected for the new-generation Prado – pricing for which was released last week – despite a near-$10,000 base price hike over its 15-year-old predecessor.

In fact, Toyota Australia is forecasting tens of thousands of orders and says managing the expectations of those customers will be one of its most pressing issues following the new Prado’s launch next quarter (July to September).

Hanley said the priority was to avoid ending up with a 2.5-year waiting list for the new model, as it did with its predecessor, by delivering vehicles in a reasonable timeframe while providing customers concrete ETAs on their orders.

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