Toyota to introduce ecofriendly hybrids to SA
July 4, 2008
By Roy Cokayne
Pretoria - Toyota South Africa plans to introduce two high-performance Lexus hybrid models into the domestic market to complement its award-winning petrol-electric Prius hybrid car, which was launched locally in 2005.
The company planned to reapply to the government for import duty relief for hybrid vehicles, Johan van Zyl, Toyota SA's president and chief executive, said this week.
Andrew Kirby, Toyota SA's senior vice-president in charge of sales and marketing, said it would launch the Lexus GS 450H hybrid medium-sized luxury sedan and the Lexus RX 400H hybrid sports utility vehicle in the fourth quarter of this year.
Kirby said two duties were applicable to vehicle imports: a motor industry development programme (MIDP) import duty and a financial ad valorem duty. Toyota SA would reapply to the government for relief from the MIDP duty, which increased the retail price by as much as R50 000 per car.
He believed this relief was justified because it would signal to business and the public that the country needed a proactive approach to managing industries that had significant effects on the environment.
"It will be a message from [the] government on how consumers can influence those areas that impact on carbon emissions," he said. "The Prius goes quite a long way to reducing emissions and fuel consumption and is very efficient, particularly in city driving."
Kirby stressed that the Lexus hybrid vehicles had a completely different philosophy from that of Toyota's hybrids. The Lexus models provided the option of buying high-performance hybrid vehicles in the premium segment.
Kirby said that the Toyota hybrids had good consumption and emissions compared to other high-performance vehicles, although in comparison to smaller cars their fuel consumption was high.
Van Zyl said that almost 600 Prius units had been sold in South Africa since the model's launch in January 2005.
Current sales totalled 30 units a month and the firm had an average backorder period of three months.
Toyota SA could sell about 50 Prius units a month if it could get sufficient stock from Japan, he said.
The Prius costs R279 000, including value-added tax. It is the only hybrid vehicle available in South Africa so far.
Kirby said the company expected to sell about 200 Lexus hybrid units within the first six months of the launch. These accounted for 40 percent of total Lexus sales in the US and 30 percent of sales in Europe.
"These Lexus hybrids have started to dominate [the] segments in which they compete in Europe and there is no reason why they will not do so in South Africa," Kirby said.
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