3 days ago
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A plug-in hybrid vehicle from Toyota in Australia is a matter of when, not if – and it's a chance to arrive by the end of this year, as sales of PHEVs grow.
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Plug-in hybrid (PHEV) technology could be in Toyota Australia showrooms by the end of 2025 amid a boom in demand for the technology – and record sales of its conventional 'plug-less' hybrids.
The Japanese car giant has previously hinted at launching its first PHEV locally by the end of the decade, once the price premium narrows from the $10,000 to $15,000 most other brands charge.
But the technology could make its Toyota debut in Australia much sooner than that.
"There's no doubt plug-in hybrids will play a big role in Toyota's portfolio in the next years. [The technology] has to," Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss Sean Hanley told local media.
"Hybrids and plug-in hybrids will be what you'll be talking about [in terms of sales growth] in January 2026."
Asked if it means Toyota's first PHEV is due in 2025, Hanley said: "Possibly. ... You'll have to wait and see. But I can tell you plug-in hybrids are on the agenda."
While they are coming from a lower base – reaching 23,163 sales in 2024, against 172,696 conventional hybrids and 91,292 electric vehicles – tax breaks and the arrival of new models have supercharged the sector.
The next major passenger model launch from Toyota is expected to be the next-generation RAV4 family SUV, which is available as a PHEV in its current form overseas, but has not been sold here.
The new RAV4 is due to be revealed this year, but it may not reach local showrooms until 2026.
Less likely for the PHEV treatment is Toyota's range of commercial vehicles – including the HiLux ute – due to their load-carrying requirements, though the company has set a target for all models in its range bar GR performance cars to be electrified in some form by 2030.
Other Toyota passenger models available as PHEVs overseas may not be affordable enough – using their current battery technology – nor meet Hanley's desires for 100km or more of electric driving range.
The Toyota executive told Drive PHEVs are a technology "we've not shied away from saying we'd introduce," and "expect over the next years you'll see a lot more plug-in hybrids from Toyota."
"The timing's now right, now that confidence is building in hybrid technology, to move to what we call the next progressive stage, which is plug-in hybrids," Hanley said.
"Plug-in hybrids offer of course a lot of great flexibility. In an SUV for example, a plug-in hybrid that gives you 80km of EV range, if you plug it in every night and you're only doing metro [driving], you'll probably get 90 per cent of your life on EV only, which works."
"The real challenge for plug-in hybrids is going to be keeping people interested in recharging them every night after the first three months of excitement, because reality is once they stop plugging in, they're just a HEV [conventional hybrid], right?
"They're no different than what we offer every other day of our life.
"However, over time, the real winner for PHEV in my opinion will be evolving battery technology that delivers potentially 200km of EV [range].
"Now, if we can do 200km at a fairly reasonable load if it's a ute, or 200km as an SUV, that is a far more credible [and] engaging proposition to the Australian consumer, and that's where I think Toyota will need to head in the future."
Asked if 200km of range is Toyota Australia's minimum requirement for PHEVs it introduces, Hanley said: "It's what I suggest would be an optimum level of evolving battery technology.
"In the meantime, if you can get say 100km or plus, that's still a good technology.
"What we've got to realise though, if people don't plug in then we're achieving nothing on decarbonisation and I don't know how people are going to know who's plugging in."
Current PHEVs offered by Toyota in Europe are rated for up to 86km of electric driving range – in the Prius not sold locally – while the soon-to-be-replaced RAV4 PHEV quotes 75km in European testing.
Hanley dismissed the end of the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) exemption on PHEVs – which makes them far more affordable to buy under a novated lease – as a concern for the Japanese brand.
"We don't have a plug-in hybrid variant now, so we'll enter the market in that condition.
"And we expect that we have to be sustainable on our own two feet, and whilst government incentives may choose in a short period of time to accelerate certain technologies, they're not a sustainable long-term solution."
He acknowledged plug-in hybrid sales could slow "maybe a little" once the FBT exemption expires in April 2025, but said "it depends on what products come to market with a PHEV really, that'll determine the growth or otherwise."
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Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
