Toyota Camry - electrified return

Toyota returns to the Old Continent with its most popular sedan ever. Where did the decision to take this step come from? And what does this have to do with Poland? 

It's simple. Several years ago, on the occasion of the premiere of the latest facelift of the beloved and extremely popular Avensis model in Poland, representatives of the Japanese concern did not hide the fact that the next generation Avensis was not planned. This is due to at least two factors. First, the chassis platform made it impossible to use the hybrid drive, which is already replacing diesel units in Toyota models today. Secondly, this is a model tailored to the realities of the European market, produced here (Great Britain) and offered. However, for many years the classic middle class (with the exception of premium brands) has been in a serious crisis. Suzuki, Honda and Citroen have already given up fighting for this segment a few years ago, Fiat and Nissan came out even earlier. Toyota, on the other hand, was in a dilemma: after the Avensis's production run was extended to its maximum, it would give up too, focusing on crossovers surviving the boom of the boom, or be able to use ... ready-made ones.

Бестселлер

The Toyota Camry has been the most popular sedan in the United States for many years, keeping domestic competitors away, much less the former Detroit giants. Annual sales of Camry are about 400 6 units. copies. Abroad, it is considered a representative of the typical middle class, and although it was once offered in Europe, it was positioned a notch higher, placed next to the Ford Scorpio or Opel Omega. This, however, belonged to the last decade of the century and is no longer relevant today. Middle-class sedans in Europe have grown by as much as half a meter and are not inferior to their American counterparts in either size or spaciousness. The best examples are Mazda and Kia Optima, which both represent their brands in the middle class. So why doesn't Toyota do the same with its latest incarnation of the Camry?

Beautiful (and expensive), scary

The promotion of new models through a name already familiar to customers was known decades ago, so the first sedan of this series, introduced in 1978, was called the Celica Camry. In contrast, the sporty Gran Turismo was called the Celica Supra. Four years later, Camry "alone" worked on its reputation. He officially got into our country even before the transformation, since in 1987 the third (not counting the Celica Camry) generation since 1991 gained relatively high popularity in our country. The big sell-off ended two years later when the Polish government imposed prohibitive duties on imported cars.

Fans of large and comfortable Toyotas in the 100th century could buy a Camry. It was not a cheap purchase, and at that time Avensis could be ordered in good performance, with a budget of up to 2,4 PLN 130, Camry costs much more. The version with a 6-liter four-cylinder engine then cost about 3.0 190 zlotys and V2004 for about thousands. zloty The decision to stop selling was made from the top down; Camry was recalled from all over Europe this year.

Middle class

Fifteen years later, it's time to return. The return should be big, and the price (relatively) moderate, because this time the eighth generation will finally be positioned as a mid-range sedan. Like it or not, Toyota had no choice, except for the premium segment of middle-upper class sedans, which is practically non-existent in Europe.

The size comparison leaves no room for doubt. On the one hand, the new Camry outperforms the outgoing Avensis, on the other hand, it is in the middle of the competition. With a length of 4885 mm, it is 135 mm longer than its "predecessor", but behind the record-breaking long Opel Insignia by 12 mm. The wheelbase is 2825mm, which is 125mm longer than the Avensis but 5mm shorter than the Insignia and Mazda 6. The Camry is also similar to the latter in width, which is 1840mm. In height (1445 mm), the new Toyota is identical to the "average" Opel. The Camry's trunk is also at the center of the package. It holds 524 liters, which is 15 liters more than the Avensis, surpasses the Mazda 6 (480 liters) or Insignia (490 liters) in terms of trunk, but is clearly inferior to the VW Passat (584 liters) or Skoda Superb (625 liters). .

Rich interior

With significantly increased exterior dimensions, the Camry offers a larger cabin than the outgoing Avensis. In addition, it offers the comfort of a limousine. True, there is no such space as in the record-breaking Skoda Superb, but there is still a lot of space, and additional lotions await rear seat passengers. The rear seat back can recline and the large center armrest hides the comfort zone control panel. These include heated seats, three-zone air conditioning (i.e. a separate zone for the rear seat), multimedia control, and a rear sunblind.

The front is no worse, the Camry is not a salon focused only on the transportation of VIPs. The instrument panel offers a 2 or 7 inch Toyota Touch 8 touchscreen, a TFT (7 inch) instrument cluster display and a head-up display that projects information directly onto the windshield. The Camry will debut a new navigation system, and there will also be new items such as wireless charging for a smartphone or luxury gadgets in the form of an air ionizer. The JBL sound system awaits music lovers.

Two engines

The new Camry offers the highest degree of safety. Toyota Safety Sense is standard and includes the most advanced version. It includes accident prevention with emergency braking and pedestrian detection, lane departure warning, active cruise control, automatic high beams and traffic sign recognition.

Under the hood, you can also find the latest achievements of Toyota engineers. The latest fourth-generation THS II hybrid unit was placed there. Its basis is a 2,5-liter gasoline engine operating in Atkinson mode. However, this is not a design known for years, but developed from scratch and characterized by a thermal efficiency of a record 41%. The total power of the system is 218 hp, which guarantees good dynamics for the car. Acceleration from 0-100 km / h takes 8,3 seconds, and the average fuel consumption according to the NEDC standard is 4,3 l / 100 km. Since the layout is identical to the US market models, one might suspect that more realistic "overseas" standards call for an average fuel consumption of 5,3 l/100 km. The electric motor has a power of 120 hp, and the battery capacity is 6,5 Ah. Thanks to this, on one electricity, you can move at speeds up to 125 km / h.

Toyota redesigned the chassis for the needs of the European market. The suspension is even stiffer than the sporty version for the US market, the braking system is more efficient with large discs, and the steering is precise. We will find out how it all works during the first races, but for now we have to be content with announcements.

Without combo version

The Toyota Camry is returning to Europe mainly thanks to the efforts of Toyota Motor Poland. It is in our country that Avensis is sold so well that its production has been extended for about a year and the recognition of the Camry name in our country is at a very high level. So the ambitions are high, although the level of sales should be slightly lower than in the case of the Avensis. This is due to the limited supply of sedan. Unfortunately, a station wagon is not forthcoming because its sale would be too low to pay for itself. Another brake may be the price, which we do not yet know about. However, from the first informal negotiations with representatives of the brand, we learned that the Camry's price list should coincide with the more equipped versions of the Avensis. Given the one and only hybrid version with a lot of power, this is good news. But the Camry is offered in five (!) trim levels, so there's a temptation to push the price of the top-end options to an unacceptable level. Well, we ourselves are very curious about how much we will have to pay for the latest incarnation of the "legend". The pre-sale is expected to begin this year, with the car arriving at dealerships in the first quarter of 2019 (probably March).