“I’m sorry:” Toyota ends petrol-only sales of key models as new scandal emerges over test data

Toyota Australia says it will stop selling petrol-only variants on nine popular models, including the RAV4, Camry, Corolla and Kluger SUV and offer only “hybrid-electric” options, a decision it says is being driven by strong customer demand.

In a statement Toyota Australia says that more than half of its sales next year will be HEV [hybrid electric vehicles] or BEV (battery electric vehicles), but almost all of this is expected to be hybrid as the company has only one BEV on the market, the poorly selling bZ4X.

The newly launched bZ4X sold just 78 units in May, a tiny fraction of Toyota’s total sales for the month of 23, 389.

“Toyota has been implementing our HEV strategy over an extended period and remains committed to innovating across a diverse array of powertrains, which is the essence of our multi-pathway approach to decarbonisation,” head of sales Steve Hanley said in a statement.

“This approach was central to global decisions, made in the earliest planning stages, that the 2024 new-generation C-HR and Camry models would be offered exclusively with hybrid powertrains,” he said.

“Around the same time, consumer demand in Australia for hybrid models was rising consistently, including in 2020 when our overall hybrid share near-doubled to more than one-quarter of our total sales – and it has continued to grow ever since.

“Faced with this surging demand, we were confident in the future of HEV as the dominant powertrain of choice for most passenger cars and SUVs, which led us to make decisions that would ultimately impact on sales of petrol-only models.”

EU real-world data shows hybrids pollute almost as much as regular cars

While the announcement of Toyota moving to hybrid-only models may be seen by some as a positive step, the opposite may be true as customers are misled about the true green credentials of the vehicles they’re purchasing. While many people believe that hybrids are low emitting vehicles, real-world data recently released by the European Union suggests otherwise.

In April the European Union Environment Agency published data showing car makers are substantially overestimating the efficiency of their vehicles for petrol, diesel and in particular hybrid vehicles.

Vehicle manufacturers quote WLTP (Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicles Test Procedure) to indicate the amount of emissions vehicles produce per km driven.

The measure is meant to indicate the fuel efficiency of the vehicle however it’s measured in lab conditions and is often very different from actual real-world numbers. When purchasing a vehicle, customers depend on the WLTP figures to understand how much pollution they’ll be generating while driving.

While the average WLTP CO2 emissions figure across 123,740 hybrids sold in the EU was just 39.59 g/km of CO2, the actual real-world average for those vehicles was 139.39 g/km. An enormous gap of around 100g/km with the real-world figure 3.5 times higher than the WLTP figure.

For Toyota hybrids, the real-world emissions figures were on average more than four times higher than the stated WLTP figures.

Toyota suspends more car shipments after allegedly manipulating vehicle safety certification

This week, multiple media outlets reported that Toyota, and Mazda have halted sales and delivery of more vehicles after Japan’s transport ministry found irregularities in safety certification applications in what appears to be a developing widespread scandal.

According to Reuters other Japanese automakers including Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha Motor also had irregularities in their applications. The automakers were found to have submitted incorrect or manipulated safety test data when they applied for certification of the vehicles.

“As the person in charge of the Toyota Group, I would like to sincerely apologize to our customers, to car fans and all stakeholders for this,” company Chairman Akio Toyoda said at a press conference addressing the news.