4 May

There's a fun story about the Toyota Tundra hybrid in the US, which explains why we've been so slow to see hybrid utes here in Oz. Unlike the V8 competition gas guzzlers there, the Tundra makes almost no noise. (While kicking their butts with power and torque, using half the fuel.) A bit like the F1 cars now that replaced the old V8s in racing. To make it attractive to many of the people who drive these cars, Toyota had to add pretend engine noise *inside* the cabin, so the driver feels like they're driving a 'grunt' car. It's played through speakers. The dominance of utes in Oz has nothing to do with people needing utes to do any work. It's a status thing, a 'grunt' thing, an image. Some people need utes obviously, but the majority of utes sold rarely do any ute work at all. That's why we haven't seen a hybrid ute here yet, because it might upset the 'grunt' image. I posted here before, even a Rav4 hybrid, a 'girl's car', has more grunt than its Hilux stablemate. It's totally divorced from any reality, hybrids are the most powerful (across the whole rev and speed range) and sophisticated engines you can buy.