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Toyota will launch its first fully electric vehicle in New Zealand next year.
Toyota Albany and Warkworth chief executive Haydn Mackenzie says the bZ4X will be a crossover SUV, similar in size to a RAV4.
It will utilise the new e-Toyota New Global Architecture platform, which has been made especially for Toyota’s electric vehicles, and allows for more space in the cabin and stability on the road.
Mackenzie, who has been in the car industry for more than 20 years, says the move to more climate-conscious motoring is picking up steam.
“We’ve seen a huge uptake in our hybrid vehicles,” he says. “When customers, other than commercial customers, come through the door, that’s what they are asking about.”
In response to this demand, the Toyota fleet is slowly becoming dominated by hybrid cars and, in the case of the Corolla range, they are now hybrid only.
Mackenzie says Toyota is working with a lot of hydrogen technology and sees a big future for these cars in the future.
“Whether it’s a hybrid, electric or hydrogen vehicle, each one will have a specific place in the market.”
Mackenzie also sees a future for the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which is already available in the Prius. It is a fusion of hybrid technology and a pure electric vehicle, takes 90-minutes to charge and can deliver a range of up to 26kms of driving from the battery alone, at speeds up to 100km/hr.
Clean car discount
Transport emissions are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand and account for 20 per cent of all the emissions Kiwis produce.
Nearly 70 per cent of all transport generated CO2 is from cars, SUVs, utes, vans and light trucks. As part of the government’s plan to reduce emissions, the Clean Car Standard and Clean Car Discount were announced last year. In the period July 1 last year to the end of August this year, $71.8 million was paid on the clean car discount for 27,304 vehicles. Additionally, from April 1 this year, fees were introduced on high emitting vehicles.
In its first five months to the end of August, the government collected $48.3 million in fees from 23,674 high emitting vehicles.
From December, all vehicle importers will have to have a CO2 account with Waka Kotahi in order to progress vehicles through entry certification.
This is to ensure systems are in place to monitor importers against targets from January next year.
