Toyota has killed off one of its most beloved products in what is the latest capitulation by a big corporate to the global push for greener technology, writes Caleb Bond.
No one is calling for Toyota to make a statement about climate and CO2 emissions but “they’re making a statement anyway”, says The Daily Telegraph journalist Tim Blair.
His remarks come as Toyota is set to pull the pin on one of the most iconic vehicles ever driven in Australia, the Japanese-made VB Turbo Diesel Landcruiser 70
“Axing their own big-selling wonderful device,” Mr Blair told Sky News host Steve Price.
It’s looked pretty much the same since the ‘80s apart – from a few facelifts – and while not the fastest car in the world, it is practical and reliable.
It has been a somewhat ubiquitous part of country Australian life for decades.
Farmers love them and the troop carrier model has a cult following in the camping and off-road community – there’s a 70 series owners group on Facebook with 109,000 members.
Toyota is “pulling a pin” on one of the most iconic vehicles ever driven in Australia, the Japanese-made V8 Turbo Diesel LandCruiser 70, says Sky News host Steve Price.
“I can’t believe they’re going to do this,” Mr Price said.
“No longer going to be available, despite huge demands for it.”
But Toyota this week announced that it was killing its V8 turbo diesel engine, which makes up the vast majority of sales.
Someone wanting that sort of car is looking for something with grunt and power.
They’re not after speed or efficiency – they’re after a car that can do hard tasks.
There was once a time in the ‘90s when the car manufacturer advertised itself as “Toyota tough”.
Now Toyota has decided to go soft in the name of the environment.
Some 90 per cent of 70 series sales are V8s, according to Toyota itself.
Toyota’s Australian sales boss Sean Hanley said: “Clearly there is a preference still for V8s. We can’t hide from that. That’s the reality.”
So why are they dumping such a wildly popular product?
Community expectations, apparently.
Mr Hanley said: “Environment is on people’s minds. We believe the community expects that we will reduce our CO2 footprint.”
There’s currently a two-year waiting list for these V8s and some of those orders may now not be met thanks to the decision to discontinue the engine.
It shouldn’t really be up to the manufacturer, or the government, or anyone else to decide if or how our carbon dioxide footprint is reduced.
The fact that 90 per cent of sales of this vehicle were V8s proves that customers want V8s.
The Toyota LandCruiser 200 Series – one of the last of the V8 turbo diesels. Picture: Supplied/ News Regional Media
What Toyota is saying is that green activists are demanding they reduce the overall emissions of their fleet and the easiest way to do that is to get rid of what is an inefficient engine from a fuel perspective – even though that engine is strong and built for a particular purpose for which it is renowned.
They claim this decision was made years ago and has nothing to do with the Albanese Government’s new vehicle emissions standards, which will be introduced next year.
Those rules essentially mean that car manufacturers will be fined if the emissions caused by their overall fleet go above a certain limit, which means you can still sell fuel-guzzling cars but that then has to be offset by cars with much lower emissions, like electric cars, to bring the average down.
And Toyota has made it clear that it doesn’t think fully electric cars are the way forward and they’ll only ever make up about 30 per cent of the market, so if they’re not willing to go down the electric road then they need to do something and the V8 would seem to be the obvious victim.
This is just a sign of things to come.
When those emission standards come in, car manufacturers will have to make plenty more decisions like this unless they want to pay extra and, of course, that cost would have to be passed on to you.
Some scoffed when emission standards were described as the end of the ute and the end of the offroader but it seems clear that’s the way we’re going, regardless of how popular these cars might be.
They can’t persuade you to change your behaviour so they’re going to force you to change your behaviour.
Caleb Bond is a columnist at SkyNews.com.au and co-host of The Late Debate at 10pm Monday to Thursday on Sky News Australia.