Bengaluru :Toyota chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada today said over 80 per cent of its Camry sales in the country are the hybrid version of the premium sedan.
“Globally, India is the ninth country to manufacture our hybrid vehicles. After the launch of the all new Camry hybrid in May 2015, its popularity has only grown further. At present, the Camry Hybrid constitutes more than 80 per cent of the total Camry sales in India,” Uchiyamada said.
Toyota Motor Corporation was the first company to start local production of hybrid cars here with the Camry Hybrid in August 2013. The Camry diesel is also sold here.
Recalling the struggle the company had to put up with its hybrid models that began with the Prius, Uchiyamada said they could not get the first Prius prototype move for 49 days.
“We had no idea what was wrong, so we worked late every night trying to figure it out. We finally got it to move around the Christmas time, but it only went 500 meters!,” Uchiyamada recalled.
That was back in 1995, when hybrids were unproven experimental machines. But 20 years later, Toyota has sold over 8 million hybrids, with just 10 months between this and the last million-unit milestone, he said, adding the commercial launch took place in 1997. Since then it sold over 8 million Camry Hybrids globally till July 31.
Reeling out the numbers in terms of lower emissions, he said the impact of these 8 million hybrids have resulted in around 58 million tonne of fewer CO2 emission, saving around 22 million liters of diesel compared to the amount used by diesel-powered vehicles of similar sizes as of July 31.
In the Indian context, 58 million tonne of fewer CO2 emissions is about 3.55 per cent of total CO2 emissions here and the 22 million kilolitres of diesel is around 13.3 per cent of the country’s annual oil imports, he said.
PTI