The clean, green credentials of the Hybrid Camry fit perfectly with Targa Tasmania’s future goals: the reduction of CO2 emissions to assist in reducing global warming.
“At Targa Tasmania we recognise the contemporary emphasis on low CO2 emissions,” Event Director, Mark Perry, said.
“In fact, we have a mandate to become carbon neutral by 2011; only one of the reasons why we’ve introduced a Hybrid Category for competitors.”
While the Hybrid Camry will be the only vehicle of its sort in this year’s Targa Tasmania, it is seen as a stepping stone to the future, with the class expected to grow in coming years.
The Hybrid Camry will be driven by previous Targa Tasmania competitor, Peter Whitaker, and sports a unique decorative scheme.
The car’s body has been signed by nearly 2000 employees of the Toyota manufacturing plant in Altona, Victoria, who helped to build the car, and during the course of the event many Tasmanians employed by Toyota will also add their signatures.
The Hybrid Camry will visit Toyota dealers across the state during its time in Tasmania.
Hybrid or not, the car is expected to be competitive, as Peter Whittaker explains.
“While we do not expect to be slow during the event, we are, in effect, on an economy run.
“So while we will demonstrate the good handling and performance of the car, we will be focussing on using as little biodegradable fuel as possible across the six days of Targa.”
A Hybrid Camry can travel almost 300 kilometres further on a single tank of fuel than Australia's best-selling car and almost 400 kilometres more than the next best-selling Australian-made car - despite both the rivals having bigger fuel tanks.
Hybrid Camry has carbon-dioxide emissions of just 142 grams/km - similar to that of a 1.3-litre compact car with around half the power.
Maximum power output from the combined 2.4-litre petrol engine and 105kW electric motor is 140kW - almost 20 per cent better than a petrol-only Camry.
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