Why Can’t the U.S. Have Toyota’s 40 MPG 4WD Minivan?
Toyota sells a 40 mile-per-gallon, four-wheel-drive hybrid minivan in Japan, and has since 2001, but they’re playing keeps.
Its become a bit of a perennial question that I’m reminded of when I find myself mired in the depths of the internet — a question that’s been simmering in the back of my mind since I learned about the Toyota Estima hybrid minivan 3 years ago… and then went to full boil when I learned that the Estima hybrid has been sold in Japan since 2001.
At the time, I googled extensively, I asked some Japanese colleagues, I contacted Toyota — I even set up a half-hearted online petition to bring the Estima hybrid to the US (offline now, but the Union of Concerned Scientists was more ambitious, garnering over 18,000 signatures).
After all that, I never really got answers as to why Toyota had no plans to bring this family-fantasy four-wheel-drive, 40 mpg minivan to the US, but as I did more research, I pieced together my own picture of the reasons. It seemed that Toyota didn’t think Americans would buy it because it wasn’t a “full-sized” minivan and it didn’t have enough power.
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But now, with the hearts and minds of consumers changing and demand for fuel efficient vehicles steaming ahead, I come back to the same question. And it’s the question I find myself asking of most every major auto manufacturer these days: WTF? If you’ve got a car that everybody will want, why don’t you just go ahead and sell it to everybody?
When I was growing up, my family was one of the first to buy Toyota’s Previa minivan. I remember sitting in it for the first time and thinking I was at the helm of a spaceship. It seemed so cool and turned me into an instant Toyota fanboy.
That Previa was built like a tank: it went 170,000 miles without any major service needed. It was also the source of many a fond teenage make-out and illicit substance memory — although most of those are a little foggy now, aren’t they?
I’ve owned Toyotas ever since, and probably will ’till the day I die. But recently I’ve started to get pissed at Toyota in the same way that I am at the American auto manufacturers for some of the dolt-headed, intelligence-defying marketing decisions they’ve made in regards to fuel efficient vehicles.
You see folks, that first generation Previa was the precursor to the Estima, but for some reason, when Toyota introduced the next generation Estima to the rest of the world as it phased-out the Previa, it introduced the turd-like Sienna to the US. The Sienna was a gas hog — just like all other US minivans — and was designed with not a hint of the Previa in mind.
As the years went on, the Japanese Estima got better and better and Toyota even released a “full-size” hybrid minivan to the Japanese market called the Alphard. But we were still stuck with the hulking Sienna.
Currently, the rumors indicate that Toyota will introduce a hybrid version of the Sienna to the US market sometime next year, but it won’t get nearly the mileage of the Estima. Again, I ask, WTF? Yo, Toyota, you’ve already got a minivan that half of the families in the US would kill for, what the hell are you doing investing so much energy in redesigning a has-been?
The video below is in Japanese, but regardless, it clearly shows the Estima hybrid in operation with its fancy Americans-need-it options and all. As a dad to two, I want this car for my family. What do you think? Is Toyota crazy just like all the other big auto manufacturers?
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Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons under a GNU Free Documentation License
Video Credit: VasyaKurolesov from Youtube
is Toyota now intending to produce this mini-van for the American market? if so, when can we expect it?
With a 2001 VW TDI (Turbo Diesel Injection) Bug I get a consistant 50 to 55 MPG. 90 HP w/a turbo makes it a serious sports car. Hook it to a 5 speed trans and your really rolling. I get that at 80 MPH every day on 4 lanes that I need too run 100 miles round trip per day for my job. 12 Gallons fills my tank, and I’m good for 600+ miles. I run 6 days on that fill up. No hybrid here, just good German engineering. VW has a Model called the ‘Polo’ in Europe that is a 70 MPG right off the showroom floor. Shame on them for not getting this car into the US market. There is one at 81 MPG that I don’t have any info on at this point. Guess what, some great engineering is already here, use it. Conclusion, the TDI has needed nothing in 180,000 miles. Chevy, Dodge, Ford, can you say the same?
The TDI is a good techology for fuel economy. However, I would again hesitate to throw “quality” stones at the big 3, as a VW fan. The fact is that VW/Audi typically rank very near dead last in all quality rankings. It’s a fact, look it up. You also can’t compare diesel engine durability to traditional gas, as the characteristics of a diesel engine inherintly make it last longer. The big 3 haven’t sold diesels in America because Americans won’t buy them. They sell tons of them overseas, so it’s not a matter of not having the technology. Finally, diesel is a ggod answer for saving fuel, but it costs as much more per gallon as the fuel it saves. Couple that with the stigma they have in the US, and you have an unsaleable product. Times are changing, so I expect them to reappear, but from a cost/benefit perspective, an efficient gasoline engine is an equally good choice.
I wholeheartedly agree. I have visited Japan since 1994,and I recall a hybrid Alphard, loaded with more people than us in a gas only Honda StepWagon, outpacing us in the mountains. What’s up Toyota?
Hell my parents bought a Dodge Grand Carvan in 2001, if this was out here in America that’d be there choice and they wouldnt be shelving the van now because of poor mpg and high gas prices
This is another reason to buy American. Unfair trade practices by other countries. They constantly give us only what they want and hold back anything that they feel they should keep for themselves. Yet we are required to share all our technologies with the rest of the world.
Japan is one of the worst offenders of this type of trading. Does the general public know that we are not allowed to sell Kodak film in Japan? Yet they flood our markets with fuji film. That’s just one example.
And take China dumping all their poisonous products on our door step. The American people better wise up. We should boycot all this one sided trade policy and tell them to stick it till they play fair!!
I feel your pain. last year I inquired of transport Canada what I would need to do to import a hybrid Estima. In short… they told me all I can do is wait until it is 15 years old and is no longer subject to the protectionist regulations.
Side note: Citroen has a new hybrid minivan that gets over 40mpg. Too bad they didn’t sell in N. America. I am sure that the thought of a competitor beating them to the punch might make them rethink their financial arrangements with the Oil lobbyists.
One thing about emissions that people don’t get, much of the world concentrates their emissions regulations on CO2, and the only way to reduce CO2 is to burn less fuel; our regulations concentrate on NOX (oxides of nitrogen, a contributor to acid rain) and to reduce NOX you must reduce combustion temperatures, the easy way to reduce combustion temperatures is to richen the fuel mix (burn more gas) so when cars *are* brought to the US from Europe and Asia, they often get drastically worse fuel mileage.