“IF you want to catch a lot of fish, set out many fishing rods,” a wise man in the motor industry once said.
Toyota is definitely following that advice.
So any potential customer swimming into a Toyota dealership will find a huge range of cars ready to hook them.
It’s working.
Sales of Toyota and its posher Lexus arm keep growing.
A cascade of new cars and updates will likely keep the momentum going into next year.
The RAV4 family SUV is a massive seller and returns next year as a plug-in hybrid only.
It should be economical when running on petrol alone. But if you can find somewhere to plug in, the electric range is now a very handy 62 milles.
The angular new body has a proper rugged look to it, standing out from the crop of softy crossovers it competes against.
Toyota keeps driving down the cost of hybrids.
At the end of the year it will relaunch its baby Aygo X as a hybrid instead of pure-petrol.
That will have the lowest consumption and CO2 rating of any car without a plug.
So the hybrid system is still a massive part of Toyota’s success.
When hybrid arrived here in the Prius at the turn of the millennium, it was a minority sport.
Gradually it went mainstream, spreading across nearly all Toyota and Lexus models. So much so that the company took flak for not jumping from there on to the full-electric car bandwagon.
Now that caution looks wise.
The speed of changeover to EVs is softening, and the legal push to ban hybrids is paused five years to 2035.
Shifting predictions for EVs are affecting Toyota-Lexus too.
For some years, the plan was to build standalone electric cars, wholly different from the hybrids.
But that’s going to change.
Andrea Carlucci, European marketing boss, told me the plan now is to build cars that you can buy as either full-electric or hybrid.
Selling completely separate hybrid and EV models, he says, “causes a complexity challenge”, confusing buyers and choking dealerships.
“We should simplify the number of silhouettes.”
So Lexus is launching its sharp-looking new luxury saloon, the ES, in both a hybrid and a 330-mile electric.
In the UK the plan is we’ll get the electric only, but no doubt that could alter if the politics of EVs change again.
For families wanting more space as well as battery power, Toyota will add a Touring estate version to the bZ4X electric crossover
Inside, it’s luxurious but with a clean Japanese-garden feel. The door trim looks like back-illuminated bamboo.
But despite the new plan for dual-powertrain cars, there are still a bunch of pure battery cars in the launch phase.
The small one is the Urban Cruiser, on sale shortly.
It’ll be followed by the C-HR+, which looks, and is, different from the C-HR hybrid.
All those two share is a general theme: both are compact coupe-crossovers.
For families wanting more space as well as battery power, Toyota will add a Touring estate version to the bZ4X electric crossover. That’s spring next year.
The all-electric Lexus RZ gets an update next year, including steer-by-wire using an aircraft-style yoke instead of a steering wheel, plus fake “gearbox” effects to make driving a single-speed EV feel more interesting.
More like a petrol car, in other words.
Ten things YOU should know as a car owner
To help you feel more confident as a car owner, here are ten things you should be familiar with about your vehicle:
- When is your MOT due? Find out here
- When is your car tax due? Find out here
- Is it illegal to drive barefoot?
- How many units can you drink and drive?
- What do dashboard warning lights mean?
- Is it illegal to drive without road tax?
- Can you be fined for breaking the highway code?
- How to change the address on your driving licence
- What does MOT stand for?
- Is it illegal to park across someone’s driveway?
