Articles by Stephen Ottley

The all-new Renault Symbioz small SUV range begins with a mild hybrid variant in the Techno trim, priced from $36,990, before on-road costs.  The Techno mild hybrid comes equipped with 18-inch alloy wheels, auto headlights, a wireless smartphone charger, heated steering wheel, automatic climate control and 10.25-inch digital driver display plus a 10.4-inch central multimedia touchscreen connected to a six-speaker sound system. Not only does it have wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto included, but also Google Automotive Services, which means it can act like an extension of your Android smartphone in many respects. Renault’s designers have created a surprisingly spacious and well-considered interior for such a small SUV.  Up the front there are plenty of small item storage spaces. There is a small ledge ahead of the stubby gear selector, with the wireless charging pad hidden underneath it. There are two cupholders and a small lidded console box as well, plus small door pockets. In terms of space for people, up front the seats are comfortable and roomy, while in the rear the back of the driver and passenger seats have been heavily sculpted out to create a good amount of kneeroom. The rear seat slides to provide a trade-off between boot space and rear occupant space, so it does have an impressively large cargo capacity if you don’t need to take passengers. The mild hybrid Symbioz is powered by a 1.3-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and makes 104kW of power and 245Nm of torque. The mild hybrid has a fuel economy rating of 6.4L/100km, which provides a theoretical driving range of more than 750km thanks to its 48L fuel tank. In terms of safety, the Symbioz Techno has a good level of active driver assistant systems that are better calibrated than many small SUV rivals. However, the Symbioz has not been rated by ANCAP and has a four-star crash test score from Euro NCAP.  The Symbioz Techno mild hybrid is covered by Renault’s standard five years/100,000km warranty. The company offers ‘Assured Servicing Pricing’ which covers the first five years or 150,000km, whichever comes first, and the total cost for the period is $2695.

It’s no secret that Chinese car brands have managed to undercut most legacy brands on price, helping their sales surge. This has led to off-the-record accusations these prices are only possible thanks to subsidies and other financial assistance from the Chinese government. Chery is one of the fastest growing Chinese brands in Australia and also one of the most-affordable, offering some of the cheapest new cars on the market today. This includes the Tiggo 4 Pro, which is priced from just $23,990 drive-away and has already become the best-selling small SUV on the market. But any suggestion that these sorts of prices are unsustainable and only possible thanks to government subsidies is quickly dismissed by Chery Australia’s Chief Operating Officer Lucas Harris. “ I think if you account for inflation the short answer's, yes, I think it is sustainable,” Harris told CarsGuide. “If you work out and factor inflation on new car prices over the last 15 or 20 years actually, there hasn't really been a huge shift. "The challenge, I think, that we've got at the moment is inflation's out of control. But I think cars in Australia are still quite affordable generally across the board, particularly if you compare to most countries in Europe. “Is it sustainable? I think so, yes. You hear all of these accusations around dumping and government subsidies I would love to see some actual evidence. I'd love a government subsidy, it would certainly help us out.” Instead, Harris said the Chinese brands are attracting Australian buyers not simply on price, but also a significant focus on technology. “ They just want everything to improve and to be better, and there's no sleeping or sitting on their hands and waiting for the next thing,” he explained. “They want to create the next thing. And so there's a huge amount of effort put into trying to understand the customers better and understand what the customers want and push the technology as far as they can. And there's certainly a lot of the reasons you gave before around why people are buying Chinese vehicles, it's not just about the price. I think it's largely driven by technology. "I think it's fairly fair to say that if you want a car that is on the leading edge of technology, then you buy a Chinese car. The Chinese brands happen to make it more affordable and more attainable than some others.” In the same interview Harris also hit back at other off-the-record criticism that Chinese car brands are ‘dumping’ vehicles in Australia. “ I would be reluctant to speak poorly about any other particular brands or countries of origins,” Harris said. “And the only explanation I could think of why someone would want to do that is if they were fighting for their lives, and they knew that they couldn't win in a fair fight.”  Unfortunately, the complexity of the Chinese car industry and its integration with various levels of government means only time will tell if Harris is right or if they will follow the same trend as their Japanese and South Korean rivals and increase prices over time.

Renault is back with an all-new contender in the highly-competitive small SUV market. The Symbioz brings European style and a polished driving experience, along with hybrid powertrains. But we review it to see if it has what it takes to compete against a diverse array of rivals from Chery, Hyundai, Mazda and more.

Brightly coloured SUVs for people who don’t like SUVs.  That’s the sales pitch for the fourth (but by no means final) new brand from Chery Motors - Lepas. Due to open its first showrooms in October and start customer deliveries in November, Lepas will join Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo in the Chinese giant’s expanding Australian line-up. But why is Chery adding yet another brand? And how will Lepas, which will begin with the L6 electric SUV, fit in? We spoke with Chery Australia Chief Operating Officer Lucas Harris during a ride-along in the L6 to understand why another brand is necessary. “ So Jaecoo is that urban, off-road, stylish urban off-road vehicle, Omoda is a much more futuristic/technology/fashion orientated customer, ”Harris explained. "Lepas is going to be much more bold and distinctive and so the way that we've tried to summarise that is that we want to create a brand that has SUVs for non-SUV people, and so it's bold and distinctive and individualistic. That's the idea rather than off-road or futuristic if that makes sense?” According to Harris, bolder colours, such as the purple our pre-production L6 was finished in, will actually play a major role in defining Lepas. “Colour is going to play a big part in that and making it stand out,” he said. “I think the other thing that's really important and very different about Lepas specifically is that it's a new energy only brand. So we'll only have battery electric and plug-in hybrid.”  The L6 EV will be the first model to arrive in Australia, followed shortly after by the smaller L4 and then the larger L8 and L9 SUVs by early 2027, with a smaller, yet-to-revealed L2 the final confirmed model for the local range. Both the L6 and L4 will be available with fully-electric and plug-in hybrid powertrains, which is also under consideration for the other models. Pricing hasn’t been revealed, but Harris indicated the L6, which is similar in size to the Jaecoo J5, will start at below $50,000. That is another key difference between Chery’s multi-brand approach and the legacy brands, with Omoda, Jaecoo and Lepas likely to overlap on price across the range. Harris explained why this strategy works for Chery as a group. “ So I think one of the differences in our approach to the brands is that established brands' way of thinking, because there are established brands that have multi-brand arrangements, they typically stack them on top of each other,” he said. “This one's volume, this one's kind of premium mainstream, this one's luxury, this one's a supercar. And they segment them and separate them really just by price. And in some of those examples, you could find the first three segments or first three layers of their brands, and they segment them by price, but a normal consumer can't tell the difference between the $80,000 or $90,000 one and the $40,000 one. The fit and finish and the standard is very similar on those. “So our approach is less about pricing and much more about trying to create a unique brand image and a unique brand feeling. And, product is a big part of that and you can see quite a big difference in the design of our products across the brands. The idea is to try and have different brands that speak to different sub-sets of consumers.” Naturally that leads to the obvious question about the potential for Lepas to take costumes away from Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo. But Harris is ready to rebut that concern. “ So my short answer to that is no, I don't think there will be any,” he said. “And the reason why I say that is that we're very intentionally trying to target different customers, and those different customers consume their media and respond to different marketing messages than others do. "That's not to say that all customers are going to fit squarely into the four boxes that we've created. There might be a little bit of overlap between the boxes, but the end goal is we reach a broader audience and reach more people.” One major difference between Lepas and the other three brands, beyond colours, is what’s underneath. The L6 rides on a different vehicle underpinnings than the others, which was developed at the company’s German design and engineering hub. Harris believes this will provide a meaningful difference between the Lepas range and what Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo can offer, with a more European-centric ride and handling program resulting in a different driving experience. But we’ll have to wait until we can jump from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat before we can pass judgement on that.

Legacy car brands are “fighting for their lives” in the face of the rise and rise of Chinese cars, according to the boss of one of Australia's most popular Chinese car makers. Lucas Harris, Chief Operating Officer for Chery, has dismissed the suggestion that his and other Chinese car brands are ‘dumping’ new vehicles here. While rival car makers are publicly hesitant to criticise their Chinese, behind-the-scenes the accusations of dumping and surviving on Chinese government support have become increasingly common. Harris believes more established rivals are simply unable to match the likes of Chery in meeting consumer demand and are worried about their long-term survival. “ I would be reluctant to speak poorly about any other particular brands or countries of origins,” Harris told CarsGuide. “And the only explanation I could think of why someone would want to do that is if they were fighting for their lives, and they knew that they couldn't win in a fair fight.”  China has become the largest provider of new vehicles to Australia, surpassing Japan and Thailand, as its domestic brands have now established themselves in the local market. Chery the eighth best-selling brand in Australia, just behind GWM, with BYD the closest challenger to Toyota at the top of the sales charts. Even Chery’s off-shoot brands, Omoda-Jaecoo, are enjoying strong sales growth of more than 800 per cent year-to-date (to the end of June), out-selling Honda and Suzuki. Harris is confident Chery’s growth and sales position is sustainable, as it has been on an upward trajectory for more than two years. Which is why he is confident enough to add a fourth brand, Lepas, alongside Chery, Omoda and Jaecoo beginning in October. “I think it's almost 24 or 25 months now where we've consecutively, month-on-month, gone up,” he said. “So we've been putting a lot of effort into trying to have very sustainable sales performance, which is why we don't see these huge peaks and troughs where one month you might do 8,000 and the next month you do 3,000 and then you jump to 6,000 again. It's all over the place. And that sort of volatility and result doesn't give dealers a great deal of confidence either to invest. “So we've really been working on trying to have sustainable, consistent growth over time. So if I say ‘yes, I'm confident,’ it's because we've been doing it for 24 months in a row now. So yes is the short answer to your question. "I think that with the introduction of some new models it's going to help. You look at adding the Omoda Jaecoo brand has added a significant amount of incremental volume in a very short period of time. And no doubt when we launch Lepas our intention is to do the same.”

Chery has confirmed its all-new Stockman ute will arrive later this year with all the “bells and whistles” but has revealed to CarsGuide plans for a more work-focused variant to target the tradie audience. Chery Australia Chief Operating Officer Lucas Harris has laid out the plan for the initial Stockman offerings, ruling out plans for a single cab variant with the new ute set to stick with a dual-cab design for the foreseeable future. “ So the launch model will be all of the bells and whistles,” Harris confirmed. “And then early next year we would look at introducing a lower tier variant to try and make it more accessible.  “At this stage won't do a cab chassis. We'll look at potentially doing a flat deck tray. It's more straightforward from a homologation point of view. So basically just a flat tray with no sides on it.” He added: “We’ll focus on more of a conventional bed, which has been designed to be easily removable. So if people want to pull it off they can.”  While single-cab, cab chassis utes are popular for many trade and fleet buyers, Harris indicated it would be too complicated and expensive for Chery to create too many variations of the Stockman. But he was adamant that, despite launching in a high-level trim, it will not be simply a ‘lifestyle’ ute and there is already interest from potential fleet buyers. “There is but if we want to capture any of the fleet volume, I think we'll need to go down and have that offering,” he said, referencing the customisable tray back. “We've had a huge amount of inquiry from fleets. I think we're just shy of 80 fleets who have put their names down for a demo. So you know, largely driven, I think, out of that plug-in hybrid diesel is a very unique option and can solve a lot of problems.”  As previously reported, Chery will give the Stockman a unique edge against its extensive list of ute rivals by offering it with first-in-class diesel plug-in hybrid powertrain, as well as a a petrol-engined plug-in hybrid. Harris also explained the role of Premcar, the Melbourne-based engineering firm, in the development of the Stockman. Premcar, which has worked on the Nissan Navara ‘Warrior’ program, can trace its origins back to the Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) days, where it established its local expertise and reputation. “ It's not the first time that we've worked with Premcar,” Harris said. “So we know them… Premcar is very well-known and very experienced around our market and what's required. And, I know they're quite famous for what they did with the Warrior, and some stuff with FPV, in the old days. "But actually it does a huge amount of engineering and development work outside of that stuff with carmakers all around the world, and sometimes not even just for Australia, for other markets. "So they're very experienced guys. It's good for us to be able to use a local company which understands our customers and understands the way customers in Australia think. So what better partner could you find to give you very candid and unfiltered feedback about what they like and what they don't,” said Harris. However, Premcar’s involvement is noteworthy as Harris has previously dismissed the need for a local ride and handling program to tailor the suspension and chassis to Australian conditions, but the Stockman appears to be a different case. “ So for this particular project they're doing assessment and validation across many different aspects of the vehicle and many different driving situations,” he said. “So it's not just off-road, but it's also on-road performance, and they'll give feedback on ride and handling and how the infotainment system works, and NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) and how the ADAS (advanced driver assist systems) works. So they'll give feedback on the whole vehicle across all those various systems and all different scenarios.” The Stockman is due to launch in the fourth quarter of 2026, when full pricing and technical specifications for both powertrains will be announced.

The Australian car industry is in the middle of a major shake-up and not all brands are likely to survive it. In fact, I’d go so far as to say some of the biggest name brands, car makers we have loved for decades, may disappear within the next five years. That’s the hard reality of the dramatic change that is sweeping the industry. The new wave of Chinese car brands have arrived and quickly established themselves with solid market share. But that share has to come from somewhere and the reality is, the brands that are feeling the squeeze more than any other are those smack dab at the heart of the market. Looking at the sales data for the first half of 2026 it’s clear who are the biggest winners and losers. Geely is up 494.6 per cent, BYD has risen 124.1 per cent and Chery sales are 76.8 per cent improved, plus both GWM, MG, Omoda-Jaecoo and Zeekr are also increasing their presence. So where are those buyers coming from? Well, Toyota is down 21.4 per cent, Mazda is 17.2 per cent down and Ford has dropped 10.6 per cent. But I’m not suggesting any of those brands are doomed, Toyota is confident of a second half bounce back and Ford remains atop the all-important ute market.  Instead, the bigger concern are the brands in the middle and lower half of the top 10, which are shedding sales at a higher rate and face increasing and long-term pressure from the newer arrivals. Nissan has dropped 32.8 per cent, Mitsubishi is down 25.7 per cent, Subaru down 25.6 per cent and Volkswagen has dropped 16.5 per cent, and there is no clear pathway for them to regain so much lost ground. While I’ve been talking strictly in sale percentage terms, the raw numbers don’t make good reading for those brands. BYD is obviously having a huge year, notching over 52,000 sales, but it’s brands like Geely (10,970 sales), Omoda-Jaecoo (8808) and even Zeekr (5835) that are starting to make serious in-roads on the likes Subaru (14,817), Nissan (13,854) and Volkswagen (12,333). In simple terms, the Australia new car pie is only so big, it typically hovers around the 1.2 million mark each year, so the slice of pie for each brand will get smaller as more and more brands enter the market. Short of a sudden and dramatic expansion of the number of people buying new cars, all of the established brands will need to get comfortable selling less volume.  Brands will need to adapt to this new world order to survive and not just the so-called ‘legacy’ brands like Nissan, Subaru, etc, but also the new, predominantly Chinese brands. Since 2021 there have been more than a dozen new brands enter the market from China alone and there are more coming, with Forthing, Lepas, iCaur and Jetour all confirmed for Australia. There simply aren’t enough buyers to make more than 70 car brands viable in Australia so get used to hearing announcements like we have recently with Peugeot and Fiat about ‘reevaluating’ or ‘restructuring’ or just plain ‘leaving’ the Australian market for good. Ultimately who survives and who doesn’t will come down to you, the new car customer, as your choice will dictate which brands maintain enough sales to remain viable - and which ones fade away.

If your next car isn’t electric, you need to ask yourself why. The days of choosing petrol or even hybrid by default should be consigned to history. I’ve just experienced one of the least popular electric vehicles (EVs) alongside one of the most popular hybrids, and I’ve come away convinced the EV is the better choice. Sales of EVs are up enormously in 2026, in part thanks to the on-going concerns about fuel prices due to the Iran War, but even if petrol prices go back to ‘normal’ levels and fuel security is resolved, it would be foolish for so many of us to revert back to our old way. You see, I just spent a week with both a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid and the Hyundai Elexio and the abiding takeaway from those seven days is that I - a petrol-loving, race-car-obsessed, motoring journalist - favoured the Elexio. To be candid, the Elexio is not the best EV on sale, by far. It has its quirks and foibles and yet its strengths as an EV made me choose it more often than I intended. This isn’t a direct comparison between the RAV4 and Elexio, to be clear. The RAV4 is an excellent SUV in its own right and it isn’t surprising to me that it comfortably out-sells the Hyundai. But having the choice between two similarly sized SUVs, but one that runs near-silently and has a smooth, uninterrupted flow of torque whenever I push the accelerator, made the choice easier than I expected. EVs are having their moment in 2026, in large part because of the cost-of-living pressures and fuel price fluctuations. According to the latest sales data (up to the end of July, at the time of writing), EVs have surged to account for one-fifth of all new cars sold in July. Four of the 10 best-selling vehicles in July were EVs, and a relatively diverse quartet too - the obvious Tesla Model Y, the surging BYD Sealion 7, the budget-friendly Geely EX5 and the luxury Zeekr 7X. The Geely starts as low as $41,990, less than many similar-sized petrol SUVs, the BYD sits comfortably in the middle of the broader SUV market at $54,990 and the Tesla and Zeekr both start below $60k but stretch into premium territory. And these four aren’t the only EVs that Australians are buying, year-to-date to July EVs now account for more than 17 per cent of the total number of new vehicles sold. That is a big jump from the previous figure that had hovered around 10 per cent for more than a year. It underlines the growth and evolution of the EV market, with more models available across a wider span of prices meaning that are both more affordable to Australians but also more choices that better suit our diverse lifestyles and needs. There are now choices from the pint-sized BYD Atto 1 all the way to the super-sized Kia EV9 and everything in-between. And the more I drive them, especially in direct comparison to a petrol or diesel-powered equivalent, like I did this past week, the more I feel like EVs have turned a corner in this market. It has been a long time coming, but I feel like now that people have been exposed to them, word-of-mouth will spread and EVs are likely to grow. Yes, we still have work to do on improving infrastructure and there are question marks over the long-term affordability of some models, but overall we may have finally reached a tipping point for EVs. They obviously aren’t for everyone, I do understand that, and I’m not suggesting EVs will account for 50 per cent of the market any time soon, but I do feel like enough people have been exposed that we won’t revert back to our previous EV skepticism. This past week with the Elexio has driven home just how far EVs have come and why there is no reason, even if cost-of-living pressures and fuel prices ease, that we should all rush back to the internal combustion engine.

Is Volkswagen the canary in the coal mine? The German automotive giant, not long removed from its aspirations of taking on Toyota as the world’s largest car maker, is in the midst of a massive overhaul. While nothing has been officially confirmed, reports indicate that as many as 100,000 jobs, four factories and up to 75 models across the Volkswagen Group could go as the operation attempts to right-size. Volkswagen sales are down nearly 20 per cent year-to-date to July in Australia, Cupra has lost over 30 per cent of its sales, Audi is down nearly 15 per cent and Skoda has dropped three per cent. Even Porsche, long seen as the ‘rock’ of the Group is hurting, down nearly 30 per cent. But Volkswagen isn’t alone, there is a growing sense the automotive industry, both in Australia and globally, is on the verge of a major transition. The influx of new brands from China shows no sign of slowing down, there are two more - Lepas and Forthing - set to launch in Australia in August.  The reality is, the new car market around the world, but particularly in Australia, is only so big. Adding another 10-20 new brands won’t suddenly increase the amount of people buying cars as dramatically. Especially as data shows the number of driving age people in Australia without a licence is growing as more and more people prefer public transport or other alternatives. But putting the global impact aside and focusing on Australia, it is becoming clear that 2026 will likely be a turning point for the local market. Like I said, Volkswagen Group isn’t alone in suffering a decline in sales. A look at the July sales data shows sales drops this year for Toyota, Ford, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Subaru, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and the list goes on. There are some ‘legacy’ brands pushing against the trend, namely Kia and Honda, but the real winners this year are BYD, GWM, Chery, MG, Geely, Omoda-Jaecoo and Zeekr. It doesn’t take an industry analyst to recognise the pattern. As these new Chinese brands have made an impact on the sales charts - all of those listed are within the top 20 selling brands -  those sales have to come from somewhere.  As I’ve written before, the new car sales ‘pie’ is only so big so everyone is going to have to get comfortable having a different sized slice of pie compared to previous years. The impact of cost-of-living pressures and the on-going uncertainty around fuel prices has played a major part in the shake-up too, but the idea that things will go back to ‘normal’ in 2027 and beyond, with the Chinese brands fading into the background is ridiculous. The likes of BYD, GWM and Chery are now likely permanent fixtures amongst the best-selling brands, and that will mean every other brand will need to adapt to this new world order. A sales drop is not what any brand wants, but for most it’s something they will need to accept for both this year and moving world order.

Toyota is either two steps ahead of almost everyone else in the car industry - or is set to waste untold millions on an unpopular technology. Despite the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) as well as the surge of interest in plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) the Japanese brand remains committed to hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCEV) technology. Currently only Toyota and Hyundai are invested in the technology in Australia, which means not only are their limited models - the Toyota Mirai and the upcoming new Hyundai Nexo - but as even Toyota puts it almost “non-existent” refueling locations. In fact, Hyundai’s head office hydrogen station is the only refueler available in Sydney. But despite the lack of infrastructure for both refuelling and producing hydrogen fuel for vehicles, Toyota remains steadfast in its belief that its time will come. So much so it has committed to introduce the HiLux FCEV by 2028, which will join the diesel and EV variants of the popular ute. However, in order to ensure there is customer interest in the niche technology, Toyota is having to enter the fuel market and will produce its own hydrogen at its Centre of Excellence in Altona, Victoria.  While Toyota has been a reluctant entrant into the EV market - with only the HiLux, bZ4X and bZ4X Touring offered locally - the company believes its investment in hydrogen will ultimately pay-off in the long-term.  “ So we've been investing, like we were investing in hybrid technology development for quite a long time, we've been doing that with hydrogen as well, for a long time,” explained John Pappas, Toyota Australia’s head of sales and marketing. “We've had two generations of Mirai now in hydrogen - and we've learnt a lot. They've been lease programs with fleet customers. We understand exactly, to your point, that the infrastructure is pretty much non-existent. You can't get any scale. And that's been the big challenge, because the only way you can reduce the cost of hydrogen is by producing more and getting the scale. “So in order for us to do that, we've invested in Altona Centre of Excellence. We've invested in a hydrogen centre, and that is production storage of hydrogen. So we are now also investing in what we call relocatable refuelers, right? "So for example, when we bring the Hilux FCEV to market, we know that based on the infrastructure, like you're saying, you can't go to the bowser. "So we're going to have to provide the ecosystem to some extent. There's many partners in this ecosystem of hydrogen, right? Viva Energy, and there's many partners, but in order to support the customer as we bring hydrogen fuel cell in, we're looking at supporting them also with relocatable refuelers,” he said. That’s right, Toyota will not only supply HiLux FCEV to fleet customers, but will also provide the fuel and refuellers to ensure they can keep running. It would be the equivalent of a car maker refining its own oil into petrol and then providing remote refuelling tankers.  But such is Toyota’s belief in the long-term viability of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that it is willing to make the commitment. “ We'll produce the hydrogen in Altona, we've got an electrolyzer there,” Pappas told CarsGuide. “So we'll produce hydrogen, we'll then transport the hydrogen to locations that we've got the HiLux FCEV fleet base, in order to basically be able to refuel our customers, right? Now, obviously to do that you’ve got to partner with other people. "Hyundai's been one of those partners for us, where we've actually developed consortiums to try and work with other people like Hyundai and the government to be able to try and promote an ecosystem for hydrogen. “So this is a long game. This is a long game. This is not where we're going to get suddenly the hydrogen HiLux is going to become the number one selling vehicle or we're going to be inundated with demand. Because the technology's going to take time, the infrastructure's going to take a lot of time. "In line with that, we need to be prepared for that time, right? So that's why we're bringing in the hydrogen HiLux and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing investing in hydrogen in Altona.” The Centre of Excellence is located at the company’s former manufacturing plant and includes a design centre in addition to the Hydrogen Centre. According to the company it can produce up to 80kg of hydrogen per day on-site.  It is all part of the long-term play for the brand that hydrogen is the ultimate solution for carbon neutral trucking and heavy industry vehicles, as well as the likes of the HiLux and LandCruiser. “Looking at it from a technical point-of-view, the advantage of hydrogen is the ability to carry a lot of energy in a light weight,” Ray Munday, the Senior Manager Product Planning and Pricing at Toyota. “And so in terms of the need for pickup trucks, and also trucking industry, it's still a long way for batteries to be able to do that, several generations probably. So that's really the answer for hydrogen, is that there is a BEV that can do a lot of stuff, but it's a long way for battery tech to go there. “It's not like we're not working on other things but that is the reason for hydrogen is that technical advantage that exists there. And then that allows the combination of fast refuel and light weight, which in vehicles that need to tow, go a long way, carry a lot of weight, payload, driving range, they are critical factors for moving. "Diesel can do a lot of that stuff, but of course diesel has challenges. And hydrogen is a zero CO2 emission fuel. If you consider what diesel is doing now, that's where something like hydrogen goes in the future.” Which means that hydrogen technology will likely be limited to heavy vehicles, such as trucks and buses, rather than passenger vehicles like the Mirai - assuming Toyota's long-term gamble pays off.