Green car grants 'could be made earlier'

Grants from the $500 million green car fund could be made available before its 2011 start date to speed up production of an Australian hybrid car, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says. Mr Rudd will visit Toyota executives at the car giant's international headquarters in Nagoya on Tuesday, where they are expected to announce the production of a hybrid Camry at the company's Altona plant in Melbourne. Toyota Australia has been in negotiations with its head office to build the next-generation Camry, due to come on line in 2010. The Rudd government's Green Car Innovation Fund is due to begin handing out money to help develop energy efficient and greenhouse gas reducing technology from 2011. Mr Rudd said he wanted to see an Australian hybrid soon. "On the green car fund, the half billion dollar fund, my understanding also is that that fund can also in part be brought forward," he told reporters in Kyoto. "I want to see an Australian hybrid car, manufactured hybrid car, as soon as possible, for two reasons. "One is for those Australian motorists that like buying Australian manufactured cars, to give them that option. "Second, in terms of the impact on fuel prices, I think it's really important for people to have that as an option at home as well in terms of dealing with this horrible impact of rising oil prices that affects family motorists." The government has promised to consider replacing its 4,000-strong commonwealth fleet with a hybrid car by 2020 if the local industry can develop a value-for-money model.Mr Rudd said the green car fund was designed to be accessible to car makers across the board and not to support any particular technology or any particular brand. - end.