Toyota has published a mysterious teaser of an upcoming model, and it could be the next Camry.
The company has released a shadowy teaser on its US press site titled “A New Dawn is Coming” with a caption below the image reading “Can you guess what’s on the horizon?”
The vehicle in the teaser features angular C-shaped LED daytime running lights, a design element that has been appearing on more Toyota vehicles of late.
The proportions suggest a passenger car and the size of the rear window and positioning of the structural pillars suggest a reasonably long wheelbase, which makes the Camry the most likely candidate.
The current 10th-generation Camry debuted in 2017 and received its latest facelift in 2021, which based on Toyota’s traditional life cycles would indicate a new generation is coming soon.
The company has been tight-lipped on the next-generation Camry, and not much is known about the car.
Heavily camouflaged prototypes have been spied overseas, revealing little more than that the proportions of the new model remain similar to the current generation.
The new Camry will likely to use a modified version of the current car’s TNGA-K platform, which also underpins models like the RAV4, Kluger and Crown.
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Current Camry
Toyota axed the 3.5-litre V6 engine from the local Camry range in 2021, and the current generation could be the last with a six-cylinder option.
Instead, the new 198kW 2.4-litre turbo petrol four-cylinder found in the Kluger could take the V6’s place as the higher-output motor.
It’s unclear whether the naturally aspirated 2.5-litre and hybrid 2.5-litre four-cylinder powertrains will carry over, though a hybrid of some sort is almost certain.
The Toyota Crown could offer more clues about potential Camry drivetrains, as they are based on the same architecture.
Two hybrid options are available on the Crown, featuring electric motor-driven AWD systems and either a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine or a punchier 2.4-litre turbo.
In Australia last year, the Camry held a 70.5 per cent share of the mainstream mid-sized sedan segment.
The company sold 9538 examples of the Camry, well above the second-place Mazda 6 (1511 sales, 11.2 per cent segment share).
The Tesla Model 3 managed to push past it overall as Australia’s best-selling sedan last year, however, with 10,877 sales.
The Hyundai i30, Kia Cerato and Toyota Corolla all outsold the larger Camry last year, though their sales figures also include hatchback models.
Toyota sold 15,269 examples of the current-generation Camry in 2018, its first full year on sale. That figure increased to 16,768 in 2019, but has declined every year since, not helped in recent years by supply chain issues.
Supply issues have become so pronounced that this week, Toyota Australia paused orders of the Camry Hybrid in the face of “extraordinary demand”.
Wait times remain at more than two years for the Camry Hybrid, which is popular with taxi and ride-share drivers in Australia and accounts for around 90 per cent of overall Camry sales.
MORE: Everything Toyota Camry
