Toyota said Tuesday it will produce hybrid cars in Australia, whose Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is trying to battle spiralling fuel prices and revive the country's ailing auto industry.
Rudd met with Toyota Motor Corp. chief Katsuaki Watanabe at the auto giant's headquarters in central Japan, as the two announced the company would build the Toyota Camry Hybrid by 2010 at an existing factory in Melbourne.
Toyota, which plans annual production of 10,000 vehicles, will benefit from a 35 million Australian dollar (37 million US) subsidy from Canberra to be used in research and development.
Rudd said increased popularity of the hybrid would help Australia cut back on emissions blamed for global warming.
“This hybrid will use one-third less petrol than a standard car, one-third less emissions and therefore for an average family … savings of up to 1,000 dollars a year,” Rudd told a joint news conference with Watanabe.
“Australia must do whatever we can to assist Australian motorists who are faced with the challenge of rising fuel prices and also… in our overall efforts to bring down greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.
Toyota, poised to overtake General Motors this year as the world's top automaker, was the pioneer of hybrids, which deliver power by switching between a regular engine and an electric motor.
It primarily produces the hybrid in Japan but also in the United States and China. Toyota is expected to announce it will also build the vehicles in Thailand.
Rudd has called for a transformation of Australia's auto industry, which has shed more than 11,000 jobs since 1996, by launching a 500 million (Australian) dollar fund to assist the development of green cars.
Australians buy one million cars a year and only 5,000 are hybrids, Rudd said.
“Australia needs to do better and more on the question of fuel-efficient vehicles,” he said.
