Peter Stewart - EcoVoice

On January the 18th, 2010, Eco Voice attended the long lead launch of the new, locally produced, Toyota Hybrid Camry vehicle.

To begin with I was pleasantly surprised when the invited guests were offered a nice morning tea before sitting down to a well orchestrated press conference to explain in detail the advantages of this new technology. This was both methodical and interesting to listen to, without droning on about specifics decipherable only to quantum physicists or aeronautical engineers.  The presentation concentrated on some fascinating aspects of the new vehicle that included:

• Most fuel efficient and locally produced car in Australia.
• Significant design changes to increase efficiency.
• Significant production changes to increase efficiency in the construction process.
• Low emission and fuel use as well as negligible particulate output readings.
• Significant recycling features.

I could go on with all sorts of other benefits but you are better off sourcing these via the website at www.toyotapressroom.com.au for more of these statistics. One of the more impressive things that came out of this initial chat was some of the "Urban Myths" that surround this new technology that I myself have been a bit sceptical of. The rechargeable batteries have come under some scrutiny but it was pointed out that only 3 of these have been replaced in the Prius models since 2001. I know that statistics can be a bit misleading, but this certainly seems a significant figure with some vehicles (Cairns Taxis) registering over 500,000 kilometres per battery and still going.

Anyway after the press conference we were all assigned a vehicle whereby I was paired with David Dowsey from the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce (VACC), a self confessed fan of motor racing. Our Toyota chaperone for the morning was Phil King, the Local Operations Manager.  I was designated chief navigator which is always bit of a worry, but the instructions were clear and concise and took us on a circuitous route through the city of Melbourne before making our way through the suburbs. We then struck the freeway and did some country driving to arrive in Flinders at the Red Hill Bakery for lunch. Having experienced the full gamut of the Camry driving experience, we found that we were all famished and tucked into a hearty feed of pastries, salad, cake and coffee. It was so nice that one member of the Toyota fraternity had two serves of the well known pies. I guess some erratic driving in his vehicle may have helped put an edge on his appetite.

It was now time for the return trip and John Bell (Local Executive Program Manager) drew the short straw and accompanied us with yours truly at the wheel. To begin with I found the car sluggish and unresponsive. However, this was rectified once I realised that I still had the hand brake on. Having negotiated this perilous problem I successfully made it out of the driveway much to the peril of the general public. We wound our way through the back roads of the Mornington Peninsula, through Arthur's Seat and on around the bay back to Port Melbourne to discuss pertinent results over some light refreshments.

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the Camry Hybrid, the way it handled, and its smooth ride. It felt a bit strange to begin with as your senses tell you that the car is not going as there is no initial engine noise, but once I adjusted to this found that the car itself had plenty of power and was a joy to drive on the open road, or around the suburbs. What was also interesting (but perhaps a bit dangerous), was my fixation on the economy gauge which I monitored along the journey. I watched as the further I went, the better the economy became. We were told that the average was around 6 litres / 100 kilometres, with the best being around 5.7. However, we did better than that with an average over the journey of 5.2 l/100 kilometres. We thought we could have lowered this further by driving the last ten kilometres in reverse as this only uses battery power, however this was frowned upon by the organisers and of course, the local constabulary.

Toyota are leading the way in promoting low emission vehicles and must be congratulated for continually raising the bar in the fight to make motoring more environmentally responsible. Whilst there are some who say this is not enough, I believe that innovation needs to be rewarded to help promote the growth in new technology. There is an opportunity for government to lead the way and replace their fleet cars with these hybrids to help get the message out there as well.

Let us hope that all the other car manufacturers can take a leaf out of Toyota's book and help to lead the way to a cleaner motoring future.