Toyota India has launched the 2019 Toyota Camry Hybrid Electric sedan in India at an introductory ex-showroom price of Rs 36.95 lakh. The car will compete with the likes of the Audi A4, Skoda Superb and the Honda Accord hybrid. The Camry comes in only one top-spec variant in India.
The company calls it a “self-charging electric vehicle”, but that’s just a clever marketing line. It is actually a parallel hybrid system that has a 2.5 litre, four-cylinder petrol engine that puts out 178PS of power and 221Nm of torque, along with an electric motor in parallel that puts out 120PS of power and 204Nm of torque.
The car can run in electric mode, petrol-only mode or in a combination mode, where total power output from the petrol & electric motors is a combined 218PS. The car does not require external charging, but the battery recharges on the go using the petrol motor. It has a 245 volt nickel-metal hydride battery.
The benefit of such a system is better fuel efficiency and much lower emissions. It gives claimed fuel efficiency of 23.27 Kmpl, which is more than some of the small hatchbacks give.
The Camry is also loaded with safety and convenience features. It is built on a new platform that makes it lower and wider than the previous generation car, freeing up more interior space.
It comes with ventilated and powered front seats as well as power-recline rear seats. It gets three-zone automatic climate control and power sunshade for the rear. The headlamps and fog lamps are LED units. So are the tail-lamps.
In terms of safety the car comes with nine airbags, traction control and ABS. Other convenience features include a wireless phone charger, rain sensing wipers, heads-up display, tyre-pressure monitoring, a tilt-and-slide moon-roof etc.
While demand for luxury sedans has been luke warm, the shift in focus to electrics and hybrids may work in Toyota’s favour. However, it competes in a price segment where SUVs far outsell sedans.
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