Finishing touches for Hybrid Camry

The pre-production Hybrid Camry on the line at Toyota's Melbourne factory. Photo / Supplied

Toyota's Australian-built Hybrid Camry will be available in New Zealand next year.

However, it's based on a car well into its model life and will have a run of only about two years before being replaced by a new model.

Toyota says it will have to decide by June on Australian production of the next-generation car, due in late 2011 or early 2012.

The petrol-electric car has gone into the pre-production phase at Toyota Australia's Altona factory in Melbourne, during which a small batch of vehicles is being built to test processes, parts and assembly methods.

Full production is due to begin in December for February sale in Australia and in New Zealand shortly after.

Steve Prangnell, Toyota New Zealand's head of sales, said Toyota plans to produce at least 10,000 Hybrid Camrys a year in Australia for domestic and export markets.

He said this Camry would give Toyota here "the advantage of producing and selling a hybrid" in the popular medium segment. It will have fuel economy about 20 per cent better than the petrol Camry, but will come with a price premium.

The hybrid is powered by a 2.4 litre four-cylinder petrol engine and an electric motor with a combined output of approximately 140kW, and fuel economy of around seven litres a 100km.

Toyota's petrol-electric Hybrid Synergy Drive controls the two motors to work together in the most energy-efficient way.

Hybrid Camry can run for short distances on electric power alone. Its petrol engine can propel the car and recharge the battery at the same time.

Worldwide sales of Toyota hybrids have topped two million since the launch of the Prius, back in 1997. Toyota reckons this fleet has so far saved the world from 11 million tonnes of CO2. The company aims to sell one million hybrids a year by the early 2010s.