Toyota cool on hybrid

TOYOTA Australia is not counting on the apparent lure of the Federal government’s much-touted $500 million Green Car Innovation Fund to get a Camry Hybrid into production in Australia.

In fact, the company’s executive director of sales and marketing David Buttner – the man who put local hybrid production on the agenda two-and-a-half years ago – told GoAuto this week that the government had yet to fully explain the fund, which has been linked with the current Review of the Automotive Industry.

However, even though industry review chief Steve Bracks said he had been asked to include the Green Car Fund in his review, he told GoAuto that the terms of reference would not allow it to consider tax breaks for more environmentally friendly fuels.

Mr Buttner said that the Altona plant still had the ability to produce a third model line such as a Camry Hybrid, but added that “we’re not pursuing that aggressively at the moment”.

“We’re conducting internal studies to see what would be the appropriate model for the marketplace if we were to go down that road,” he said.



Left: Toyota Camry hybrid.

“We’ve got no timeline at the moment (but)it’s always an option for us.” This is quite a step backwards from less than 18 months ago, when Mr Buttner told GoAuto the company had “a strong desire” to build the Camry Hybrid and was “pursuing it very, very strongly”.

And, if the new government’s promised fund was designed to facilitate such a move, as many people believed, it seems to have missed the mark.

“The government Green Fund details are still not fully articulated by the government, but my understanding of the program is that they’re prepared to support the development of alternate fuels in Australia to the tune of $500 million on the proviso that that stimulates $2 billion worth of investment in pursuing alternate fuels in Australia,” Mr Buttner told us.

“There have been no papers published by the government, so I don’t understand any of the micro detail (but) that’s our understanding of the macro level.

“In terms of hybrid in Australia, it’s one option in terms of alternate fuels.

I’ve said on a number of occasions that we would like to do it. Whether that happens or not will be found out in the fullness of time.” Asked what he would do with the $500 million if he were a member of the government, Mr Buttner replied he would not speculate on government policy.

Would Australia be better off if the government simply made LPG cheaper, as suggested by former Holden engineering chief Laurie Sparke, therefore apitalising on our abundant source of natural gas? “There’s a host of means available to governments. As an industry, through the FCAI, we talk to the government and put forward ideas and suggestions on what we believe will be the appropriate way forward. How the government responds is entirely up to them in terms of where they spend their money to support the industry.” So that’s a “no comment” then? “Yeah, that’s right.”

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