Toyota says its made-in-Australia Hybrid Camry will have fuel-consumption and emissions performance* that will rival small and even compact cars.

Peter Evans, corporate manager of Toyota Australia's product planning, says Hybrid Camry will use less fuel than cars with only half the power output.

Mr Evans also says the new car – to be launched in February – will produce less CO2 than many cars with much smaller engines.

These statements are based on the expected results of final fuel-consumption and emissions testing to the official Australian standards.

Mr Evans says the most relevant comparison is based on the city-cycle testing because the overwhelming majority of Australian motorists do most of their driving in urban areas.

He says a Hybrid Camry owner will save at least 1100 litres of fuel in a year of city driving* compared with its locally built six-cylinder rivals.

Over a year, with an average of 20,000km of city driving, that would mean a saving of at least $1320 a year for each Hybrid Camry driver, based on a pump price of $1.20 a litre for regular unleaded petrol.

Fleet owners will multiply those savings by two, 10, 100 and even hundreds – with potential for even bigger individual gains as many of their drivers cover far greater distances than private motorists.

Toyota expects Hybrid Camry – with combined maximum power of around 140kW from its 2.4-litre petrol engine and powerful electric motor – to produce less than 150 grams/km of CO2*.

That's an advantage of more than 40 per cent.

Using the same amount of fuel, a Hybrid Camry could travel at least 175km compared with just 100km for the most efficient^ six-cylinder car produced in Australia.

While petrol-electric hybrid cars are known to be extremely efficient around town, especially in stop-start traffic, Toyota also expects significant advantages on the open road.

On the highway cycle, Toyota expects the official figures to show Hybrid Camry will use around 25 per cent less fuel than the best of the local big sixes.

Overall, the combination of city and highway driving is expected to result in an official fuel economy in the low 6.0-litres per 100km range.

Toyota says Hybrid Camry will also have many fuel-saving features beyond the combination of its petrol engine and electric motor.

Its engineers have tuned the suspension and steering for Australian conditions – and they have included technology that improves overall driving performance and safety.

Toyota is planning to release Hybrid Camry to the market in February.

* "City driving" refers to the ADR 81/02 city cycle; "open road" refers to the ADR 81/02 highway cycle; "combination" refers to the ADR 81/02 combined cycle. Emissions data based on ADR 81/02 combined cycle. Fuel consumption and emissions will vary depending on driving conditions/style, vehicle conditions and options/accessories. ^ Source of emissions and fuel economy data, greenvehicleguide.gov.au, 16 November 2009.

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