Report - Toyota Camry Hybrid gears up for a September launch in India

06/08/2013 - 10:36 Toyota Camry, Toyota Anjan Ravi

The Toyota Camry Hybrid is the next new product launch for Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM). We earlier reported saying that the Camry Hybrid would be launched sometime in the period of September this year. We can now affirm that Toyota India is indeed considering a launch during that period.

The company has planned pre-launch programs for the Camry Hybrid, and events are to begin in mid-August. We can estimate that the car would be launched within a month from this time.

Toyota Camry Hybrid front — India gets the Thai-spec Camry Hybrid. Note the different looking grille.

TKM could also consider locally assembling the Camry Hybrid. As the Camry is a CKD (Completely Knocked Down unit) itself, Toyota could continue the same with the Hybrid version rather than bringing it in as a CBU (like the Prius).

Toyota Camry — Regular Camry takes the CKD route in India. Would the Camry Hybrid follow the same?

How do you distinguish a petrol Camry from its greener sibling? An early spy image reveals that the grille of the Hybrid is a bit different in comparison to the regular Camry. India will get the Thai-spec Camry Hybrid (and not the American version) which is powered by the same 2.5-liter petrol engine as that of the regular Camry. However, an electric motor would be providing additional assistance taking the overall power output to 200bhp!

A Toyota e-CVT gearbox would send this power to the front wheels and the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive system would control the power management.