Over the years, the Japanese auto major has been witnessing a steady rise in sales of Camry Hybrid. While in 2013, the share of hybrid in Camry sales was only 15 per cent, within a year it soared to 73 per cent and in 2015 it jumped further to 86 per cent.
"As much as 90 per cent of our Camry sales come from the hybrid model now. During the January-April 2016 period, we have sold 419 Camry hybrids, while the gasoline models sales stood at a low 44 units in the same period.
Toyota is the only company that assembles and sells pure hybrid models in the country. It began local assembly of the Camry Hybrid way back in August, 2013.
While it assembles the Camry Hybrid at its Bengaluru plant, it also sells another such model, the imported Prius Hybrid, in the country.
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Globally, Toyota sold 9 million hybrids in 2015, most of which were Camrys followed by Prius, he said, adding that with the government incentive of Rs 70,000 cash discount on each unit, the company expects the demand for hybrids to only go up.
He refused to answer whether the company will look at local assembly of the Prius Hybrid also.
When asked about the largest market for hybrids, Vishwanathan said though demand comes from the top 10 metros, smaller cities like Kochi too have good potential.
"Recently we were surprised to welcome a farmer from a small town in Karnataka at one of our showrooms who demanded a Camry Hybrid on full cash down payment. And he wanted the car immediately to welcome his son from the US," he said.
Toyota Kirloskar Motors began locally assembling the
Camry Hybrid in August, 2013, a year after it was introduced as an imported model, making the company the first and the only one to do so in the country.
The Camry Hybrid is assembled at its second plant located at Bidadi, near Bengaluru. Globally, India is the ninth country to manufacture Toyota Hybrids.
The petrol Camry, the legendary cornerstone of the brand Toyota, was first introduced in the country in 2002, and in a decade later in 2012, it began its local assembly.
Last year, the company rolled out an all new Camry Hybrid. The new Camry hybrid combines a newly developed Hybrid exclusive 2.5-L beltless petrol engine with an electric motor.
It controls the engine and motor output for optimum fuel efficiency. The battery supplies electricity to the motor, enhancing the driving power. The engine and motor together give an impressive total system power output of 205 PS.
Like its petrol counterpart, the new Camry Hybrid is based on the seventh generation of the Camry.
Apart from powering the car, the electric motor is activated as a generator to convert the moving vehicle's kinetic energy into electricity to charge the battery. This process usually happens at the time of decelerating and braking and is called regenerative braking. The vehicle gives a mileage of 19.16 km/l and emits just 122.8 gm of carbon dioxide per km of driving.