Toyota Camry Hybrid 2015 Review

One has to admire what Toyota has done with its hybrid Camry.

From a locally cobbled-up conversion of a regular petrol-engined sedan into a packaging-compromised hybrid, the petrol-electric Camry has grown to become a fully integrated car that, today, shows few flaws.

As well as sorting out most of the deleterious effects that came with siting the car’s nickel metal-hydride battery pack between the rear seat backrest and the boot – including some loss of luggage space – the latest version of the Camry Hybrid operates with more efficiency, more refinement on the road and is an all-round better deal for passengers.

And it does this without being dramatically more expensive than the dearest regular Camry. At $41,490 (plus on-road costs) in top-shelf HL form, the Hybrid is only $1500 dearer than the most luxurious regular Camry, the $39,990 (plus ORCs) Atara SL.

What you get for your money is undoubtedly the most refined and most economical Camry yet.

Complete with a purpose-deigned 2.5-litre Atkinson cycle petrol engine, and its refined integration with the two electric motors that contribute towards efficiency and effectiveness, the Camry Hybrid adroitly sidesteps questions about its relevancy in the marketplace.

With strong performance (zero to 100km/h comes up in a swift eight seconds) and an exceptional fuel economy claim of 5.2L/100km on the combined cycle, the family-size Toyota seems to offer the best of both worlds.

On top of that, the Camry Hybrid’s smoothness on the road, and its high levels of comfort, mount a convincing argument that, for most, it would be the logical choice if you were in the market for anything carrying the Camry badge, hybrid or not. The base, but nevertheless well-equipped Hybrid H version, at $35,490 (plus ORCs), is not ridiculously more expensive than the $31,990 (plus ORCs) entry-level Camry RZ.

A week spent recently in a top-spec Hybrid HL increased our respect for a car that was initially viewed with some scepticism.

During our time with the Camry Hybrid, we came reasonably close to the official average, recording 6.0L/100km in a mix of driving conditions, while appreciating its no-brainer approach to petrol-electric motoring in which everything is essentially set-and-forget.

About the only cue, in a practical sense, to its hybrid configuration is the silence that meets driver and passengers when the ignition is switched on, or when the car is being reversed or operating in short-duration full EV mode.

The gymnastics going on within the complex and clever drivetrain – the constant switching between the petrol engine and the twin electric motors – are largely undetectable. In fact the electric assistance helps make for an exceptional smoothness that feels more akin to a six-cylinder, than to a four-cylinder driveline.

With the help of the electric motor’s strong torque, the Hybrid feels very responsive, either from start-up, or when pulling out to pass a slower vehicle on the open road. It's combined petrol-electric output is rated at 151kW.

All the work put into the current generation Camry to make it quieter on the road has paid off: The Hybrid is a tight, solid-feeling cruiser that is almost as quiet on the run as when reversing silently, or operating in EV mode under battery power. The ride, which benefits from significant Austrian design input, is smooth and well controlled and the combined motive forces work together to make this about as velvety a driveline as you are likely to find.

It’s not exactly what you’d call sporting – and Toyota goes to pains stressing this – but the Camry Hybrid acquits itself well enough when dealing with tight turns. The steering, while a little too light for some tastes and relatively low-geared with 3.2 turns required to go from lock to lock, telegraphs reasonable information to the driver.

There’s decent room for passengers, particularly in the back seat where numerous fiddles during the design stage opened up the interior without increasing the car’s footprint. Legroom, footroom and headroom are excellent.

The Hybrid’s boot isn’t bad, either, swallowing as much as 421 litres of luggage and offering a modicum of load-thru into the cabin. It’s not the biggest in class, but there’s not been too much compromising finding accommodation for the sizeable battery pack.

An interesting fact about the Camry Hybrid is that the latest model, unlike its predecessor, quotes a towing capacity: At the request of the company’s local arm, the car is now rated to tow 300kg of braked or unbraked trailer. It might not be enough to cope with a tandem-wheeled 30-footer, but at least a small trailer is now within the Hybrid’s scope.

Both H and HL Camry Hybrids share a five-star ANCAP safety rating with other Camry models. They come with seven airbags – Including a driver’s kneebag – a reversing camera, blind-spot monitoring, automatically activated high-beam and hill-start assist. Technologies that don’t make it include pre-emptive accident avoidance, automatic lane-keeping and self-parking.

As the most expensive version, the Hybrid HL is fitted out with a swag of gear though: sat-nav is standard, as are leather-accented seats (powered at the front, with memory settings on the driver’s side), a premium JBL 10-speaker audio system with digital (DAB+) radio, dual-zone climate-control, an electrochromatic rear-view mirror and a powered rear sunshade. Bigger, 17-inch alloys and a bootlid spoiler are also part of the HL deal. A glass sunroof is available as an option.

If you looked at the Hybrid HL as merely a conventionally powered car, it would rate well enough. Add the fact it’s a hybrid with decent performance and handling, enviable smoothness and refinement as well as fuel economy ratings that would otherwise only be possible with a turbo-diesel, and you have a most enticing Toyota Camry.

Frankly, it’s difficult to see a downside.