Hybrid Toyota LandCruiser and HiLux: "Australia is ready for alternative energy LCVs"

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Regional Australia is ready for a hybrid light commercial vehicles
Andrew Chesterton
Contributing Journalist
13 Dec 2019
2 min read

Toyota says it's "only a matter of time" until a hybrid Toyota HiLux and LandCruiser arrive in Australia, but that time apparently can't come soon enough for the Japanese brand's rural heartland, with customers pressuring the Japanese giant roll out electrification across its LCV range.

Toyota's vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, says the brand has launched a hybrid education campaign in rural Australia in an en effort to win regional customers over to hybrid tech. The Toyota roadshow involves shipping hybrid Corollas and RAV4s to our regional centres to use as familiarisation vehicles. 

But Hanley says he's been asked two major questions in every rural hub they visit: where's the hybrid HiLux and LandCruiser.

"Rural Australia is more ready for alternative energy than you'd believe," he says. 

"The only question we're getting is 'When are we getting it in the HiLux, when are we getting it in the LandCruiser?'"

"I don't know yet. But it is coming."

Hybrid versions of both the HiLux and LandCruiser will arrive by 2025, part of Toyota's broader plan to electrify its entire range by that same year.

Toyota remains a key hybrid player in Australia, with the brand celebrating more than 100,000 electrified vehicles sold in May this year.

Andrew Chesterton
Contributing Journalist
Andrew Chesterton should probably hate cars. From his hail-damaged Camira that looked like it had spent a hard life parked at the end of Tiger Woods' personal driving range, to the Nissan Pulsar Reebok that shook like it was possessed by a particularly mean-spirited demon every time he dared push past 40km/h, his personal car history isn't exactly littered with gold. But that seemingly endless procession of rust-savaged hate machines taught him something even more important; that cars are more than a collection of nuts, bolts and petrol. They're your ticket to freedom, a way to unlock incredible experiences, rolling invitations to incredible adventures. They have soul. And so, somehow, the car bug still bit. And it bit hard. When "Chesto" started his journalism career with News Ltd's Sunday and Daily Telegraph newspapers, he covered just about everything, from business to real estate, courts to crime, before settling into state political reporting at NSW Parliament House. But the automotive world's siren song soon sounded again, and he begged anyone who would listen for the opportunity to write about cars. Eventually they listened, and his career since has seen him filing car news, reviews and features for TopGear, Wheels, Motor and, of course, CarsGuide, as well as many, many others. More than a decade later, and the car bug is yet to relinquish its toothy grip. And if you ask Chesto, he thinks it never will.
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