Aussie Market rates with Toyota

We know because Toyota has just confirmed early deliveries of its new green hero car, the plug-in Prius, to 'significant markets' and Australia has made the list.

We are rated by Toyota on the same level as Japan, the USA and several  major European countries, although no-one at Toyota Australia is going  into too much detail following confirmation of the plug-in plan by  sales and marketing chief Dave Buttner.

He leaked the news during the press preview program for the Camry hybrid at Altona last week, just minutes after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd stood in front of the car in a 21st century re-make of the scene when Ben Chifley introduced Australia to the 48-215 Holden.

So it was a big day on a couple of fronts.  The plug-in Prius is a big deal because it signals everything from Toyota's decision to move on from basic hybrids to the company's shift  to a lithium-ion battery pack. They are landmark decisions by a company that is leading the world down the hybrid road.

The first plug-ins should land in Australia next year and, based on the program for Japan and the USA, they will go to government agencies and educational institutions. So they are more like a science experiment than a real car for ordinary customers.

And that's another topic that came up with Toyota in the past week.  The company has gone badly backwards in Australia over the past year, losing 2.5 percentage points of market share and contributing roughly 40 per cent of the sales downturn since the GFC.

Worse still, from Toyota's perspective, much of the ground has been lost to the Korean companies, Hyundai and Kia.  That's great for car buyers, who are getting great deals from the  Koreans, but Toyota is plotting a comeback plan and that could be even better news for anyone in a showroom in the next couple of years.

Follow Paul Gover on Twitter!