Toyota’s Avensis powers ahead

TOYOTA may be regarded as a fundamentally conservative car maker — an opinion with which I deeply disagree but the company certainly harbours an ability to shock and surprise every now and then.

Take this past week when the Japanese giant announced that it planned to have hydrogen-powered cars in production by 2015. Now, it may have escaped your notice, but for the last ten years or so Toyota has been the main purveyor of hybrid technology and its two generations of Prius models — and latterly the Auris — have been the torch bearers for all those motorists of an environmentally conscious leaning.

Understandably, even the Toyota sub-brand Lexus has got in on the act with a variety of electric/petrol powerplants.