Toyota Camry Hybrid

Compare the Camry Hybrid!

If you're thinking about buying a Toyota Camry Hybrid, you might also consider a Toyota Prius or Ford Fusion Hybrid. Compare these vehicles.

You'll never get accused of recklessness for buying a Toyota Camry. It's safe, comfortable, dependable, relatively attractive and altogether predictable. And based on the overwhelming sales numbers, Americans are happy with a reliable and affordable set of wheels for the family. The Camry has been America's top-selling passenger vehicle for eight of the past nine years.

As long as you're being practical, then why not invest a few extra dollars for the Camry with a hybrid drive that offers an EPA rating of 33 miles to the gallon, and gives you around 700 miles between visits to the gas station?

In the Toyota Prius, the hybrid system was a bold move into unknown technology. The hybrid option on the Camry seems like a common sense choice for an era when one storm—meteorological or political—could send gas prices toward $4 per gallon. Consumers who care about fuel economy can choose between the standard Camry's four-cylinder combined highway/city mpg rating of 25 mpg; the V6's mpg rating of 23; or the hybrid's 33 mpg.

The first half of the Camry Hybrid drivetrain is a 147 horsepower version of the standard 2.4-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine. The second half is a 105-kW electric motor and 244-volt battery pack that delivers a peak of 45 hp. The battery pack consists of 34 nickel metal hydride modules, each of which contains six 1.2-volt cells. Run it all through a continuously variable transmission, and it adds up to 192 horsepower, versus the standard Camry's 158 hp. For a point of comparison, the Camry Hybrid moves from 0 – 60 in about 8.9 seconds, nearly a second faster than the Toyota Prius.

Toyota employs the full regimen of safety features for the Camry Hybrid, from the standard Vehicle Dynamic Integrated Management (VDIM) system, which orchestrates antilock brakes, traction control, stability control, and steering boost—to the Whiplash Injury Lessening (WIL) seat design found in the Prius.

Toyota set the price for the Camry Hybrid at $25,200. The first set of Camry Hybrids were all produced in Japan. In 2007, Toyota began producing approximately 4,000 Camry Hybrids per month in its Georgetown, KY, plant, where it currently turns out Camrys at the rate of 30,000 per month.

Toyota plans to sell 60,000 Camry Hybrids, or 15 percent of all Camry sales. Naysayers believe gas-electric hybrids will reach the limit of their market potential when the East Coast and West Coast fringe have bought their Priuses. The Camry Hybrid will test that premise like never before. Are 15 percent of mainstream American buyers willing to invest in a technology that will help the United States wean itself off oil, reduce our environmental impact, and protect us against price shocks at the pumps? Are you in the 15th percentile?

33 / 34 MPG 7.13 / 6.92 L/100km
BODY TYPE:

Sedan
TECHNOLOGY:

Hybrid
BASE MSRP:

$25,500