True to form, Toyota dropped this one like a feather in the wind.
Where rivals would have shouted, Toyota hinted. They said one thing, and in doing so revealed another.
The new Toyota Auris will be powered by a choice of one petrol engine and two hybrid powertrains when it is launched later this year.
See? Your pulse is barely rising. So what haven’t they said?
As scooped by Autocar late last year, the new Auris range will not include a diesel, of course, following the initiative set by the ultra-successful CH-R crossover.
The business logic is simple enough: last year, hybrids accounted for 41% of all Toyota sales in Europe, up 38% on the year before. Diesels accounted for less than 10% of sales.
But that business logic represents another bit of pioneering thinking from Toyota, a company that has made a habit of being ahead of the curve, without always getting the credit for it (10 million hybrid sales and counting, for starters…).
As a result of today’s announcement, the only diesel Toyota in Europe will soon be the Land Cruiser, a car so big and so rugged and so epically not for urban use that it is entirely logical that it should be offered as an oil-burner.
The world is changing, and on this evidence Toyota might be leading that change once again. Blink, though, and you might just miss the start of the revolution.
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Toyota do not have decent diesels
Is that the reason they are not doing a diesel version,they have not invested in diesels siufficiently.When the true co 2 figures of hybrids is shown it would make you want a diesel again.Never mind the excess baggage they lumber around.
Old news
Toyota dropped diesel engines from the old Auris last year. All they have done is confirm that they won't be bringing them back in the new model, which is hardly surprising.
Not a gamble ...
.... when you have nothing to lose. Like when they swapped from Corolla to Auris, they had nothing to lose as the brand equity attached to the Corolla name was nil in Europe. Instead of convince people the Corolla was no longer your last car, they hanged the name. That bombed and now back to Corolla, but as the only way cars are sold these days is cash to old people or lease deals to people driving short distances in towns it makes sense to drop diesel. They have nothing to lose, so not a gamble for me at all.
The Corolla was still
The Corolla was still available in other European markets, such as Ireland, as an Auris saloon.
Toyota are going back to where their strengths lie - petrol and hybrid. The 90s Corolla even used a Peugeot-Citroen XUD engine as they didn't have a suitable one of their own, and Lexus tried to shun diesel for as long as it could.
With the sudden anti-diesel sentiment it was a rational decision.