Toyota Camry Hybrid 2009 Review - International

Not so much
>> Boot space halved
>> A short-term solution?
>> It's not thrilling...

Overall rating: 2.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 3.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 2.5/5.0
Safety: 2.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 2.5/5.0
X-factor: 2.0/5.0

About our ratings

Despite what you might have read elsewhere, the opportunities to evaluate the Camry Hybrid in this country have been remote, to say the least. Back in September of last year, local media attending Toyota's Environment and Technology Conference availed themselves of a drive in the Camry Hybrid, along with other Toyota hybrid models. That 'drive' was a one-kilometre section of straight bitumen at Toyota's Altona facility -- so not much of an opening there to evaluate anything about the car, one might say.

Last month, as guests of Toyota, the Carsales Network flew to Detroit to attend the unveiling of the Lexus HS 250 h and the new generation Prius at the North American International Auto Show. From there, we flitted back west to California for a briefing and drive program out of Toyota Motor Sales' head office at Torrance.

After sampling one of Toyota's Kluger-based FCHV fuel cell vehicles (more here), the rest of the journey to lunch at the Queen Mary in Long Beach was completed in a Camry Hybrid.

The drive was a steady cruise which barely tested the Camry's mettle, but did provide a medium of sorts to get a feel for the car, which Toyota will sell locally from early 2010. Other than its left-hand drive configuration (and some potential minor facelift styling changes), the car was in practical terms identical to the models that will start to roll down Toyota's local Altona line late this year.

After driving the FCHV, the Camry Hybrid felt very similar initially. Since it was a petrol/electric hybrid, the reviewer was expecting the petrol engine to burst into life. It took a little while to realise that the car would roll under its own power, without the petrol engine running.

From a standing start the Camry runs in electric mode and kicks over the petrol engine at approximately 40mph (64km/h). Until that point, it's as silent as the also electrically-propelled FCHV. The difference is that additional motive (and recharging) power for the Camry comes from the petrol engine, not the FCHV's fuel cell.

Battery charge aside, the 40mph threshold at which the petrol engine starts seems to be based on the point at which the car's combined mass and aerodynamic drag begin to win the fight against the electric motor's torque. Launch was a bit soft with the electric motor alone and the feel of the conventional IC (internal combustion) car away from standstill was missing, but the power is there if you need it and, like the Prius, the Camry will combine petrol engine and electric motor power when the driver demands.

When the drive system (Hybrid Synergy Drive, in Toyota's marketing terminology) chooses to activate the petrol engine, there's a mild rumbling rather like that of the Civic Hybrid that the Carsales Network has been evaluating on long-term test.

The difference with the Camry -- and the Prius, which uses the same technology -- is that the Toyota's petrol engine will auto-start and auto-stop whether the vehicle is in motion or at standstill. By comparison, the Honda system will only shut down the engine once the car has stopped moving.

On the run down to Long Beach at a steady 75km/h, the Camry posted fuel consumption figures equivalent to 3.9L/100km. Granted that figure was determined by the car's fuel economy gauge in VERY favourable circumstances, but it is indicative of how frugal the car could be.

Bear in mind though, that this sort of driving is a long way from real-world combined-cycle fuel consumption testing the car companies must publish to comply with Australian Design Rules.

Reading the US model vehicle's fuel consumption in MPG (miles per gallon) was a shock to the system, following decades of comparing fuel consumption in litres per 100km. In the latter standard, higher figures are worse, lower figures are better, but in MPG, the reverse holds true. So there was a mental adjustment involved comprehending what the gauge was indicating.

The one other bemusing aspect of the Camry Hybrid's design was the inadequate boot space.

Unlike the internal-combustion-only variants, the Hybrid provided the boot space of a small hatchback at best. The luggage capacity we've come to expect from the Camry is diminished by the space required for the nickel metal hydride battery.

Toyota has designed the boot with a small skiport that allows owners to poke skis or fishing rods from the boot into the interior, but anything of similar length but much greater width is bound to pose a problem.

Notwithstanding the packaging compromises, the Camry Hybrid is, however, a proper attempt by Toyota to bring its Hybrid Synergy Drive technology into the mainstream. Where the Prius is a car for people we might unkindly call 'eco-geeks', the Camry is an altogether more conservative 'vehicle' to convert normal users to more environmentally-aware drivers.

We're wondering though, whether Toyota has zigged when it should have zagged?

Yes, there's a need to get society into more environmentally-friendly cars -- and why not start with a volume-seller? But there's another school of thought that adheres to the future being 'sexy' as well as practical.

The Camry is important, but we wouldn't mind seeing a production version of the FT-HS concept car (more here) to really plant the message. Perhaps it could be offered in British Racing Green?