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Diesel energy has a decade left to run, says Toyota Australia’s gross sales and advertising boss, who’s tipping each hydrogen and petrol fashions to interchange diesels in native showrooms.
“Diesel’s not going to go anytime within the subsequent decade, however past that – I feel hydrogen will take over diesel,” Toyota Australia vp of gross sales, advertising and franchise operations, Sean Hanley, instructed media together with CarExpert when requested about diesel’s long-term viability.
“I feel there’s a tradition of diesel in Australia … ultimately I feel diesel in – not the foreseeable future – however in the long run, I can’t think about diesel essentially being a gas of the longer term, as a result of the fact is a petroleum [vehicle] can do all the pieces it may possibly do – plus some.”
Toyota’s best-selling car in 2023 was the HiLux ute, which has a predominantly diesel-powered lineup. This was overtaken as Toyota’s hottest mannequin right here in 2024 by the RAV4 SUV, which is now bought right here solely with hybrid energy.
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The model introduced a plug-in hybrid model of the next-generation RAV4, due in showrooms in 2026, to be joined by a hybrid LandCruiser 300 Collection, which is at the moment diesel-only.
Toyota Australia switched to hybrid energy solely on 9 fashions in 2024, in what Mr Hanley describes as its “whole passenger automotive vary and urban-oriented SUV vary”.
Successfully, each mannequin that provided each petrol and hybrid energy – together with the top-selling RAV4 – was moved to a hybrid-only lineup. The one purely petrol-powered passenger automobiles that stay within the native lineup are GR-branded scorching hatches and sports activities automobiles, although there stays a raft of diesel-powered industrial automobiles and off-roaders.
Toyota Australia’s 163,491 gross sales from January to the tip of August 2025 included a complete of 79,132 diesels or 48.4 per cent of all automobiles bought, throughout HiLux, LandCruiser, LandCruiser Prado, Coaster bus, Fortuner SUV, Granvia individuals mover and HiAce van fashions.
“Turbo-diesel and turbocharged petrol inside combustion engines will nonetheless have a task to play for a while in Australia for explicit purposes,” Mr Hanley stated.
“I don’t need individuals to suppose that hydrogen is instantly going to be taking off between now and 2030.
“However within the 2030s, notably that 2035 horizon, I really imagine hydrogen can be our future – and that’s the place, I feel, you would possibly see a change of diesel know-how … we’re organising for that future.
“Why? Hydrogen’s clear, hydrogen has vary, hydrogen infrastructure can be considerably higher than what you could have immediately, clearly. It’ll be extra handy, and it’ll be inexpensive.”
Toyota has been a frontrunner in hydrogen in Australia, together with Hyundai, and introduced the Mirai fuel-cell electrical car (FCEV) right here in 2020, though it’s not out there to most people.
A batch of 10 FCEV HiLux utes had been produced for testing within the UK in 2024, whereas a prototype hydrogen HiAce van was additionally developed and test-driven by native media in 2023, constructing in its FCEV tech developed since 2017, nonetheless manufacturing variations of both haven’t materialised.
“Individuals are poo-pooing hydrogen from left, proper and centre for the time being , as a result of – it’s like every new know-how, these items take time, infrastructure, sourcing inexperienced hydrogen and so forth.” stated Mr Hanley.
“We’ve got an abundance of hydrogen on this nation so it’s type of unhappy once I hear these tales, as a result of to my thoughts, there’s an amazing alternative for this nation to be a frontrunner, notably in sourcing and likewise the take up.”
“Nonetheless, the fact is … we’re very a lot invested in hydrogen – nothing’s modified – however it’s not a short-term funding.”
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