Toyota Camry SL Hybrid 2022 Review

The modern state of the Aussie passenger car market is summed up if you consider what competition is out there for the 2022 Toyota Camry SL Hybrid. Not much!

Let’s check the rollcall of mainstream medium-to-large three-box sedans. Ford Mondeo? Gone. Kia Optima? Gone. Subaru Liberty? Gone. Volkswagen Passat? Gone, albeit only recently.

Spread the net a little wider and you can add the Chrysler 300 and imported Holden Commodore to the list of departed.

Even considering what’s left you’d be hard-pressed to call them rivals. Consider the Camry family sold 13,081 examples in Australia in 2021. The rest didn’t even manage 5000 sales between them. Only the Mazda6 and Skoda Octavia tallied more than 1000 sales.

All of which proves the power of the Toyota brand and enduring appeal of Camry, which is kinda funny considering it has long been dismissed as fleet fodder lacking the character of many now-departed foes.

For years and multiple Camry generations that criticism was deserved, but as we’ve observed more than once since the eighth-generation launched in 2017 it’s now a different and better story.

We’re revisiting Camry in the wake of a 2021 update that axed the V6 petrol engine and made the 160kW petrol-electric hybrid four-cylinder the motivational choice under every bonnet except the base model Ascent.

The SL, priced at $46,990 plus on-road costs, sits at the very top of the Camry food chain. Like every other hybrid in the range it has the fuel-saving Atkinson-cycle 2.5-litre engine mated with two electric motors, one of which works as an e-CVT, or continuously variable transmission, to drive the front wheels.

Where it differentiates from the rest of the range is in some luxury equipment. It has 18-inch alloy wheels, heated, ventilated and cooled front seats, driver’s seat memory function, power for the front passenger seat as well as the driver, electric boot opening, head-up display, ambient interior illumination, electro-chromatic interior mirror, panoramic roof, panoramic view monitor and a nine-speaker JBL audio system.

Like all models in the range bar Ascent it also upgrades to a 9.0-inch infotainment touch-screen that sits atop the dashboard. Previously it was smaller and embedded in the dash, so it’s a big step forward in terms of visibility.

The software that inhabits it is unchanged, though. That seems to be pretty dated these days.

Other features shared with lesser Camrys include a new grille, vestigial rear spoiler, paddle shifters to select the six computer-chosen steps (all models also get gear lever shifting), leather-accent seat trim, wired Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connection, dual-zone climate control, three USB-A charging points and satellite navigation. The spare tyre is a space-saver.

There has been at least one equipment deletion through all this: wireless phone charging.

The Camry is protected by a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty and the servicing intervals are 12 months/15,000km.

Capped pricing means the first five services cost a measly $1100 in total, although be aware the next three services will cost you more than $1900!

The 2022 Toyota Camry SL Hybrid is typical of the brand in presenting a solid safety story.

For the latest update the new safety features fitted standard across the range include road sign assist, emergency steering assist and intersection turn assistance.

Also new is a three-year complimentary subscription to Toyota Connected Services, which include SOS emergency call, automatic collision notification and stolen vehicle tracking.

‘Driver insights’ are accessible via an app that include odometer and fuel level, vehicle status and vehicle locator.

Other driver assist tech such as autonomous emergency braking (AEB) with pedestrian and cyclist detection, adaptive cruise control, lane trace assist, auto high beam for the LED headlights, a reversing camera with front and rear parking sensors, and seven airbags is carried over.

The Camry SL is alone in the range in having rain-sensing wipers.

The Camry comes with a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, albeit based on superseded 2017 protocols.

Through the years, each new Toyota Camry was launched with the promise of vast improvement, but the reality was usually far less significant. It took until the end of local manufacture and this generation’s arrival in 2017 for that promise to meet reality.

Most of that key technical stuff was unchanged for the 2021 update, so let’s go through it.

Based on new underpinnings dubbed TNGA (Toyota New Generation Architecture), the Camry is longer, wider and lower than its predecessor, has overhauled drivetrains and new suspension designs.

Under the bonnet is a new (for 2017) A25A-FXS Atkinson-cycle 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine that combines with two electric motors to produce 160kW (up 9kW) and an unspecified amount of combined torque – the engine makes 221Nm at 3600rpm, the motors 202Nm from 0-1500rpm.

One of the motor generators combines with parallel gears (previously planetary gears) to act as a pseudo CVT.

As a self-charging hybrid which restores electricity during braking and deceleration, the Camry has no plug and it runs only at low speed for a short time on electricity alone.

It’s primarily a supplement to the petrol engine, reducing its fuel consumption, and there’s no doubt it works. The claim is 4.7L/100km on 95RON fuel and we returned 5.2L/100km in varied conditions (with additional help provided by idle-stop and auto-glide functions).

That’s pretty darned impressive for a five-seater sedan that weighs in at 1655kg (kerb) and measures up about 4.9m long and 1.84m wide.

A notable change that occurred ahead of the 2021 update was the swap from old-school NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) battery to the lithium-ion chemistry most packs from most vehicles with electrified assistance now use. But it remains tiny, only a little more than 1kWh in size.

Since the 2017 overhaul, the pack has been situated under the rear seat rather than in the boot, improving luggage space from 415 litres to 524 litres and allowing the installation of a small split-fold rear seat function.

Once you drive the 2022 Toyota Camry SL Hybrid it’s easy to realise why Camrys are so often the choice of taxi and Uber drivers.

Not only is it economical, it fits two adults in the rear seat and it has a big boot for their luggage. Oh yeah, it also rides calmly and progresses quietly, easily and comfortably.

It’s a distinct improvement over Camrys of yore. In fact, all those departed rivals would now have a challenge besting this thing as well.

The big shock for a Camry veteran is the polished way it performs for the driver.

Look, it’s not a Toyota GR Supra, but it is cohesive, doesn’t get all roly-poly and wishy-washy (those are not technical terms) at the sight of a corner and all flustered by bumps.

We’re plucking little things here but tyre noise is quite noticeable on coarser surfaces (partly because the car is so quiet in other ways) and brake pedal feel is a tad wooden.

The big issue for some will be ride height. Not being an SUV or ute you do tend to feel in thick traffic like you’re traveling at the bottom of a canyon.

But you are at least doing it comfortably in generously supportive seats complemented by plenty of leg space.

There’s also lots of different places to store drinks, phones and other regalia of modern life.

The combination of trim materials make you feel like you’re sitting in a nice place.

For the driver there is no shortage of controls and menus to work through. Thankfully, nanny-state lane keeping assist is easy to shut down.

The dashboard is a sweeping design that looks something like a double-breasted suit in the way it overlaps in the centre stack.

One weird equipment semi-omission is the way the boot will power-open remotely but require manual closure. Sort of a halfway house there, Toyota. And, yes, it’s a big ticket item, but the sunroof is of limited value in Aussie hot weather.

Of course, the hybrid system is the star act in this show. It fills in the 2.5’s torque hole at lower revs, giving low-blow turbo-like acceleration. It is grunty and responsive enough make the manual shifters pretty much pointless.

There are Eco, Normal and Sport modes that progressively – but marginally – sharpen performance. More noticeably, the Sport mode heavies up the electric-assist steering in a way that provides no noticeable benefit.

In EV mode the e-motors can run solo very briefly at low speed up to about 30km/h without invoking the petrol engine’s help.

Gee, it would be good if you could rely on electric power longer and at higher speeds. But then we’re talking plug-in hybrid tech with bigger batteries and Toyota doesn’t seem interested in that.

Even at this limited level of assistance there’s no doubt electric assist – however it is deployed – does help with performance, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.

Toyota has recently run a bit of a campaign in support of its hybrids. Considering the record numbers that are being sold in Australia it clearly feels the 2022 Camry SL Hybrid and its ilk don’t get enough respect.

The company is basically putting around an argument that having its many thousands of hybrids on the road is reducing emissions in a more cost-effective way than battery-electric vehicles, which most people can’t afford or aren’t even sold in Australia.

Fair enough, hybrids are definitely a bridging tech that are here now doing a valuable job. But the time will come when full battery-powered cars will take over and not even Toyota denies that. It’s first one will be on sale within about 12 months.

For now though, the Toyota Camry SL Hybrid is a pretty nice bit of slightly electrified kit.

How much does the 2022 Toyota Camry SL Hybrid cost?
Price: $46,990 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol-electric
Output: 131kW/221Nm (electric motors – 88kW/202Nm; 160kW combined)
Transmission: Continuously variable automatic
Fuel: 4.7L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 103g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2017)