Toyota already sells the Camry in India which has a strong hybrid powertrain.
The push towards EVs has got every carmaker scrambling to offer one, but is it the wiser choice? EVs are heavy, expensive, and require more rare earth materials to make, and until we have renewable ways of generating electricity, are they even a zero-emission vehicle? The emissions you would save from exiting the tail pipe would still be emitted from burning coal to produce electricity. So, Japanese carmakers, namely Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Honda have all recently hopped on to the hybrid bandwagon.
But you see, Toyota has had hybrid vehicles in its line-up for the longest amount of time, and yet, the Camry is all that we have seen in India. Cars like the Prius have been global beacon for the shift towards hybrid and electric technologies in cars, and if Toyota’s recent foray into mass-market hybrids (Urban Cruiser Hyryder) becomes a success, it could very well lead to them bringing in more hybrid cars to our market.
The problem always has been that hybrid’s are still a tad bit expensive for price-sensitive markets like India. But with their partnership with Suzuki, Toyota is being able to leverage their low-cost engineering know-how and plans to do the same with the hybrids. In fact, it plans on sourcing parts for its hybrid cars in India, and making them here as well, which will dramatically cut costs and make low-cost hybrid cars a reality in India.
It will now all depend on the kind of success that Toyota is able to enjoy with the Urban Cruiser Hyryder SUV, as that will determine how Toyota moves on the subject of bringing new hybrid cars to India. In fact, according to rumours, the next model after that could be the Innova Hycross, an MPV that will mirror the abilities of the popular Innova Crysta but will feature a monocoque construction and only have a petrol-hybrid powertrain on offer.
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