RiderTua.com – Toyota presented the Fortuner with a hybrid engine in South Africa several months ago. This ladder frame SUV uses a diesel engine combined with hybrid technology, making it more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient. However, Toyota only sells it in South Africa. Although they open up opportunities to present it in other countries, including Indonesia.
Toyota Fortuner Gets Hybrid Variant in South Africa
For a car like the Fortuner, this model should have an environmentally friendly variant. Moreover, Toyota already has the technology to combine with diesel engines, even though diesel hybrids are still rarely found on the market. Especially in the ladder frame SUV segment, this provides an opportunity for Toyota to present a hybrid variant of the Fortuner.
It’s just that this new variant was launched in South Africa only, at least for now. Toyota is still opening up opportunities to release it in other countries, including Indonesia, where the Fortuner remains its mainstay in its segment to this day. Still, they need time to do market research before they can sell it.
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Apart from that, they cannot confirm whether the Fortuner Hybrid can be assembled in Indonesia or not. But if you look at the Kijang Innova Zenix and Yaris Cross HEV which were successfully produced here, Toyota should be able to do the same thing. Although the difference is clearly the hybrid diesel engine, they can import it if it is not yet possible to assemble it locally.
The Fortuner Hybrid is a new mainstay for Toyota in the ladder frame SUV segment, considering that this segment has not yet been entered by many hybrid models. In Indonesia there is already the GWM Tank 500 which is a hybrid car in its class, but apart from that there is no similar model so far. Of course, Toyota doesn’t want to be left further behind in terms of electrification of its SUVs and pickups.
