Electric Hilux possible, electric world …?

 Batteries could be included for a New Zealand favourite but don’t imagine every future Toyota will go that way, the brand says.

bz4x previews toyota’s first fully electric car, out next year. But it doesn’t mean every future Toyota will power play this way.

TOYOTA has fired up focus on the potential for a New Zealand market icon, the Hilux, being battery-driven yet also suggested a fully electric driving world is improbable.

The matters have been addressed by Toyota Australia, which has acknowledged that the push to add hybrid or pure electric power to all models could eventually see the introduction of a battery-compelled version of the top-selling one-tonne ute. 

Additionally, however, the distributor has spoken stridently in suggesting not every vehicle on the planet can ever switch to pure electric power, primarily because this transition would simply shift the problem from tailpipes to power stations.

This viewpoint has spurred Toyota New Zealand to say that it’s a reminder that each country has its own challenges and that our neighbour’s are different to our own.

Says TNZ chief executive Neeraj Lala: “The challenge for Australia and TMCA (Toyota Motor Corporation Australia) is that in transitioning to BEV a large proportion of their electricity is generated by fossil fuels hence the commentary on shifting the problem.”

In comment on Tuesday, a day after the home office of the world’s biggest car maker unveiled the pure-electric BZ4X, a RAV4-sized and styled model that has been confirmed for New Zealand availability from 2022, the Australian operation’s sales and marketing boss contended: “Despite this week’s focus on (pure-electric cars), we cannot achieve carbon neutrality simply by turning all our cars into (pure-electric vehicles).”

The statement from Sean Hanley is potentially a litmus paper to electric vehicle supporters who hold belief there is no reason why New Zealand should not stop the sale of new fossil fuelled vehicles by 2035, as proposed by a Government study, and wholly embrace a mains-fed future.

On this, Lala says: “That is an issue at the source of electricity generation for Australia (albeit it a far smaller issue here in NZ) … we have our own challenges and need to continue to work with the Government and relevant industries to continue our transition to a low emission vehicle fleet in NZ.”

The new car market leader concurs with a view also put by the Australians – namely, that the world of tomorrow will be better served by a choice of future vehicle technologies.

To that end, Toyota says over the next decade it will expand its choice of technology – beyond petrol and diesel vehicles – by introducing more hybrid, plug-in hybrid, pure-electric, and hydrogen models.

A fully electric Hilux? Never say never, apparently.

Lala offered that because each country has its own unique challenges in considering models in their market including powertrains and electrification “…the Toyota global view has been to not focus on just one but multiple powertrain options so countries and customers can have a variety of low emission options that suit them.

“As the technologies advance, there is a likelihood that electrified models will span across our whole model range (this is our longer term objective) and if these are developed and introduced as HEV, PHEV or BEV has a dependency on how mature the market is and what benefits the power train can offer the customers in that market.”

While not responding directly to the concept of a battery Hilux, he offered this view. “ … NZ customers want more rugged utes that can go off-road, tow and carry loads so a BEV option would need the support of charging infrastructure in both urban and rural/remote locations to be practical for our customers.” 

The idea of an electric ute fits in with contention from Toyota’s agency in the United States, which this week let slip that pick-up trucks it sells will take this form of propulsion.

The timing is anyone’s guess. Having previously said it wanted to have battery-influenced versions of every important car it makes in circulation by 2025, Toyota Japan this week pushed out that timeframe to 2030.

Also, while Toyota has said a Hilux EV could happen, it also says that it might be a decade before we see it. In the interim, then, a hybrid option could still be in the more immediate future.

The thought out of Australia about the purely battery-fed Hilux has come with a caveat about the need for such a vehicle to be up to surviving Australia’s tough conditions.

However, when asked about the imminent arrival of electric versions of the Tesla Cybertruck, Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado in the US – and the possibility of a Toyota rival – Toyota Australia executives reportedly said an electric Hilux could not be ruled out.

The CarAdvice website has quoted the senior product planner for Toyota Australia, Rod Ferguson, as saying: “We have not ruled out a pure-electric Hilux” and, though such a vehicle would “definitely be a challenge, but until we get to point where we say we can’t do it, we will explore every option”. 

Advancements in battery systems could one day make an electric heavy-duty ute possible, Ferguson said.

bz4x is RAV4-sized, but will it compete directly with the popular sports utility?

“We need to consider the packaging and changing platforms (vehicle architecture). We haven’t ruled it out.”

In respect to the idea of an utterly electric driving world, Toyota Australia’s executives are not so sure.

According to Hanley: “One-quarter of the world’s CO2 emissions today come from electricity generation. Even by 2040, more than half the world’s electricity is expected to be generated by fossil fuels.”

“Therefore, if all cars were to become (pure-electric vehicles), the demand for electricity would increase and carbon neutrality could be a long way off.

“We simply cannot achieve carbon neutrality by only producing electric vehicles,” said Hanley, especially as “more than half the electricity generated by 2040 will still be powered by fossil fuels. 

“In the end, the main driver of electrification (of vehicles) will be … the consumer,” said Hanley, adding that Australians have a “broad use” of vehicles and a vast range of demands, from rural and city use to mining and off-road driving.

“Our vehicles must be fit for purpose. There’s no point bringing a car to market if it can’t do what consumers want.”

GR to Rallye to WRC cause

A special edition of Toyota’s upcoming GR Yaris sounds tasty … as does our neighbour’s incentive programme for this new hottie. We might see one, but probably not the other.

AN even wilder version of Toyota’s super-heated GR Yaris is heading into production.

Set to be available in the first half of 2021, the GR Yaris Rallye – the white car seen here - further enforces the maker’s assertion that this three-door racer was not only born from Toyota’s success in the heat of motorsport but will have a credible ongoing homologation role with Toyota’s World Rally Championship programme.

The Rallye’s status with the emergent Gazoo fanbase will also be elevated through it being a limited-edition car.

 The difference between it and the ‘regular’ edition (represented by the black car) arriving in New Zealand soon isn’t defined by outright performance but by enhancements elsewhere.

Specifically, the Rallye will have circuit-tuned suspension, Torsen limited-slip diffs for both the front and rear axles, 18-inch forged alloy wheels from BBS, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres and red brake calipers.

Naturally enough, those ingredients have been developed by Toyota Gazoo Racing in collaboration with Tommi Makinen Racing, the team that took the original Yaris WRC to a world title in 2018, 12 months after the car entered competition.

The Rallye’s additional content is undoubtedly more than window dressing.

Makinen’s outfit is now developing the new road car into their contender for the 2021 season and beyond – undoubtedly those extras will some way or another prove useful for the motorsport process.

The Rallye – which also restricts to just three paint colours; black, white and red – maintains the 1.6-litre three-cylinder turbo petrol engine in the same tune as the standard GR and also keeps the six-speed manual gearbox.

With 200kW and 370Nm the engine is the most powerful triple in production and gives both editions of the car an ability to sprint to 100kmh in just 5.2 seconds. The Rallye’s edge will undoubtedly come in the corners and under braking.

Talk of the Rallye has emerged with Toyota in Australia announcing a pricing plan for the GR Yaris that perhaps might leave New Zealand enthusiasts wondering how they might find a way to secure the model there and ship it back across the Tasman.

Toyota New Zealand’s announced sticker of $54,990 has been undercut by our neighbour – and massively so during a programme designed to elevate the Gazoo image across the Tasman.

Toyota Australia’s car, which seems to be kitted identically to that coming here, will only be $1200 less expensive than here at full recommended retail – but to ensure it gets off to a smart start, the first 1000 sold will only cost $NZ43,400 drive away. A huge $11,590 undercut.

The Rallye is not included in that programme and how much of a premium it will carry over the GR has yet to be announced.

Toyota Australia’s vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, says the launch price was to incentivise support for the Gazoo Racing brand, which is probably newer to our neighbour than it is here.

The NZ awareness programme began even before the first GR car, the Supra, landed last year as it was used in a sponsorship association with the international single seater Toyota Racing Series since the end of 2018.

As for a discount start here? It doesn’t sound likely, from the tenor of comment from TNZ chief executive Neeraj Lala.

His thought about what’s going on across the Tasman?

Says Lala: “Toyota New Zealand has not offered a Recommended Retail Price in New Zealand for the past 2.5 years to avoid this situation.

“This means our Toyota Driveway Price (TDP) provides our customers with an up-front and transparent transaction price which includes on-road costs and subsidised servicing.”   

BTW, he declined to comment on the potential of the Rallye coming here.

The GR Yaris is the first homologation special since the Celica GT-Four, the car that was used to find WRC rally success when Toyota was last involved in international rallying, becoming the first Japanese maker to win the WRC manufacturer’s title, in 1993. 

Toyota’s plan is for the GR Yaris to be an even hotter ticket for road use than the Celica and the hope is it will establish the same street status as such stage-to-road greats as Ford’s RS Escort Cosworth and Subaru’s Impreza WRX.