That was the view expressed by Toyota Ireland MD Dave Shannon last night, when he also said the CO2-based taxation was introduced in this country in a way that 'wasn't right'.
"I think the drive to reduce CO2 is absolutely the right thing to do, and the industry made the Government aware of the best way to do it here," he recalled. "But they didn't take that option, and they didn't tell us how they were introducing the most dramatic CO2 regime in Europe until we had already ordered our cars for 2008."
Looking to Toyota's business in Ireland he revealed that the Irish distributor had recently signed a new contract with the carmaker to represent Toyota in Ireland 'for many years to come'.
In relation to the current difficulties, he said the Irish motor industry 'will be OK'. "We've been here before. It is a resiliant industry, we will learn from the difficulties and we'll come out the stronger for it."
Toyota itself has a number of new models coming on stream in 2009, including the iQ city car and new generation Avensis, along with the Urban Cruiser, all in the early part of the year. The new generation Prius hybrid will be coming along towards the end of the year.
"I firmly believe that hybrid is the way forward, and while our competitors are all working to get hybrids on the road we in Toyota have a 7-10 years lead on them."
