SPY PICS: Next Toyota Camry for 2017

These tawdry spy photos show the next Toyota Camry undergoing shakedown testing in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Widely reported as due to launch globally in the latter half of next year as a 2018 model, the new Camry is to be built on the same modular platform as the Prius, and will share next to nothing with the current car.

That timing suggests the new model will seamlessly replace the current Camry being built for Australian consumers at Toyota's plant in Altona, west of Melbourne. That plant is set to close next year. The question arising is whether Thailand, the odds-on favourite to be the source for Australian Camrys after 2017, can gear up for production of the new car in time for the transition from locally-manufactured product to fully imported model.

Toyota Australia has presumably chosen the closure date for Altona based on the production-start date for the new Camry in Thailand, if that's where the next Camry is to be built for Australia. But if Thai production of the new Camry isn't aligned with American production – delayed by a few months or more, for instance – Altona may have to build up stocks of the current car before the plant closes to tide the company over in the period immediately following the plant closure.

It's unlikely Toyota would cease manufacture of the current Camry, only to import the same generation of car for a few months or a year prior to the introduction of the new model. However, there is a precedent – that being Nissan's N14 Pulsar which was manufactured here and subsequently imported after the closure of Nissan's Clayton plant.

Most generations of Camry have been built here for the local market since 1987. The first Camry – the SV11 series – was a Japanese-built five-door hatchback, imported into Australia from April 1983. It continued through to 1987 when it was replaced by a locally-built four-door sedan using essentially the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder front-drive configuration.

But, between 1988 and 1993, the locally-built four-cylinder sedan was supplemented by a Japanese-built 2.5-litre V6 version that paved the way for future V6 versions of the "wide body" Camry introduced in 1993. These were initially labelled Camry Vienta, then Toyota Vienta. From 2006, the Aussie-designed V6 Camry was marked as the Toyota Aurion and the design was adopted throughout other parts of the world as a car known internally as the 'prestige Camry'.

It remains uncertain whether or not Toyota will continue with the 200kW/336Nm V6-engined Aurion when the Camry series ceases local manufacture. There are some whispers of a replacement in the form of a turbo 2.0-litre four-cylinder, possibly derived from the 180kW/350Nm engine used in the Lexus IS 200t.

While sources are suggesting Toyota will take a more aggressive styling approach with the next-generation Camry, influenced by the likes of the C-HR crossover hybrid seen at the 2015 Frankfurt motor show, the FT-1 sports car seen at Detroit in 2014 and the NS4 Plugin Hybrid sedan from 2012, the glad-wrapped mule in these photos speaks of styling that will follow tried and proven formulas.

The actual underpinnings will be completely changed though, and the modular platform currently underpinning the latest Prius will mean greater structural rigidity, as well as lower weight, even though the dimensions of the already generously-proportioned Camry will not change greatly.

This hints that after it becomes a fully-imported car, the Camry – unlike its Holden and Ford counterparts – will remain totally familiar in size, style and substance. It is expected that the engine line-up, including a hybrid variant, will remain essentially unchanged.

There are also rumours that the Camry's current six-speed automatic gearbox could be replaced by the eight-speeder used in the Lexus IS.