Toyota’s entire passenger range is going hybrid only from today.
As first revealed by CarsGuide earlier this week, the Corolla Cross SUV will ditch its petrol engine variants and go hybrid only.
Now Toyota has confirmed the RAV4 and Kluger SUVs and Corolla sedan will follow suit and only be available to order in hybrid form from today. Toyota has already announced its Yaris, Corolla hatch, Yaris Cross and C-HR are going hybrid only.
Only the brand’s commercial vehicles and rugged 4WDs will be available with conventional petrol or diesel powertrains.
Toyota Australia’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Dealer Operations Sean Hanley said the adoption of hybrid vehicles in Australia made this decision possible.
“This is not a result of the impending New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES). These are trends that are in the market now. In fact, the new mandated standard confirms the foresight of Toyota’s strategy,” said Hanley.
“We continue and we will do even more in coming years to innovate across a diverse range of drivetrains, which is the essence of Toyota’s multi pathway approach.
Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid.
“So in that sense, you could say Toyota has been embracing the spirit of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard for an extended period with our hybrids, plus out move now into BEVs and our comprehensive future model plans that remain under wraps for now. We remain committed to allowing customers to choose the low carbon or no carbon drivetrain that best suits their circumstances.”
The Federal Government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) has passed through both houses of parliament and will come into effect next year.
This new standard will penalise carmakers for every car they sell that produces more CO2 than a set level. These levels will get harder to meet every year.
There are few petrol-engined cars that will escape punishment but hybrids will slip under the mandated levels for a few years at least.
In May, hybrid sales made up 48.9 per cent of the Toyota’s total volume. More than 46 per cent of the brand’s total sales for the first five months of this year have been hybrids.
The top-selling RAV4 was more than 95 per cent hybrid the past month, demand for the Camry hybrid was up more than 250 per cent and Corolla Cross Hybrid sales have more than doubled this year.
Petrol sales still make up about 20 per cent of Kluger SUV volume, though.
The deletion of the petrol options for the Corolla Cross, RAV4 and Kluger means it’ll be more expensive to get into one of these models, too.
Hybrid power costs $2500 more in the Corolla Cross and RAV4 and a whopping $6500 extra in the seven-seat Kluger. That big jump is due to Kluger hybrid variants only coming with all-wheel drive and not the cheaper two-wheel drive layout available in the petrol-only versions.
That means the new entry point to Corolla Cross range is $36,480 (before on-road costs), $42,260 for the RAV4 and $60,920 for the Kluger.
Toyota has no plans to add a cheaper two-wheel drive version of the Kluger hybrid, according to Hanley.
The Japanese brand will honour all existing petrol orders, with those cars to be delivered over the next few months. Kluger petrol deliveries will stretch into next year, though.