Toyota will take the Landcruiser off the market in Europe to help it meet its CO2 emissions requirements, a German magazine said.
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According to Auto Motor und Sport, the model will no longer be sold from January 2009.
At the same time, Toyota plans to increase the price of the RAV4 in order to curtail demand. In this way Toyota will reduce its fleet average CO2 emissions to 140g per kilometre.
Toyota axed a range of niche sporty models – the MR2 and Celica – and the large Previa MPV/minivan from its European line several years ago, citing similar reasons.
A Toyota GB spokesman said the company’s policy is not to talk about future model plans but he did confirm that the redesigned Land Cruiser (replacing a model the UK unit calls the Amazon) would be launched next year.
The spokesman could not comment on the European/UK future of the current model known as the Land Cruiser here in the UK (badged Colorado or Prado in other markets) but it is unlikely Toyota would launch the new Land Cruiser/Amazon in Europe and axe it less than a year later.
The only other likely scenario is that it will retain the new redesigned top model here and axe the older Land Cruiser/Prado/Colorado instead of launching a redesign at the end of the smaller line’s model life.
The European Commission is hoping to limit CO2 emissions from new cars sold to an average of 120g/km by 2012. European vehicle manufacturers had committed to voluntary requirement to reduce CO2 emissions to 140g/km per vehicle by 2008, but at present the figure is still in excess of 160g/km.
German vehicle manufacturers are campaigning for different limits for different sizes of vehicles, but latest reports suggest this is unlikely, and all vehicle manufacturers will be expected to meet the same average limits, regardless of whether they are luxury car manufacturers or not.
