Having successfully won over millions of green-minded consumers worldwide (and thousands of economy-minded taxi drivers)

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with its distinctive-looking Prius range of hybrid vehicles, it seems that Toyota is turning its attention to a new breed of hybrid buyer these days: the hybrid buyer who doesn’t want to be seen as driving a hybrid.

The company took an initial step in this direction back in 2006 when it introduced the Camry Hybrid sedan, available in LE and XLE trim with a few subtle but distinctive hybrid styling details. Now, halfway through the 2014 model year, the company has introduced the limited edition 2014.5 Camry Hybrid SE, an environmentally friendly hybrid sheep in sporty-minded wolf’s clothing.

Mechanically, the Camry Hybrid SE is identical to its Camry Hybrid siblings, with the same 2.5-litre Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder engine paired with an electric traction motor and CVT transmission to produce a net total of 200 horsepower. This

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is actually significantly more powerful than the conventionally-powered four-cylinder Camry, which produces 178 horsepower from its 2.5-cylinder engine. And given that 44 of the hybrid’s horses are high-torque electric Clydesdales, you get some serious grunt off the line: the Camry Hybrid SE can easily squawk its tires upon launch and will run from standstill to 100 km/h in about 7.8 seconds flat.

Mind you, it lets you know its working hard when you do this, with the CVT transmission keeping the engine revs high and steady as the car accelerates. Most of the time, however, the Camry Hybrid encourages a restrained, economical driving style and in return rewards you with quiet operation and excellent fuel economy. City/highway fuel consumption for the Camry Hybrid is rated at 4.5 / 4.9 L/100km city/highway, and in my own around-town hybrid driving I never used more than 7.0 L/100km and got a best recorded run of 6.1 L/100km.

A

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button on the console allows you to select Eco mode for even more efficient driving (in practice this means driving with a dulled, sluggish-feeling throttle response) and you can also force the car into EV (electric only) mode when there’s sufficient battery power (this only works for short runs at low speeds). Beyond that, driving the Camry Hybrid SE feels little different from driving a conventionally-powered Camry. Toyota has vast experience building hybrid cars, and it shows in the seamless transitions between electric and gasoline power, and in the natural-feeling regenerative brakes.

Stylistically, aside from a couple of discreet hybrid badges and a blue-highlighted Toyota emblem at the front, the Camry Hybrid SE is essentially identical to the conventionally-powered Camry SE. This means it gets the SE’s gets aggressively-styled front end, with a body-coloured grille insert instead of the split-bar chrome insert

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used throughout the rest of the range, and a more sophisticated-looking lower fascia that manages to be at once subtler and sportier-looking than the regular Camry. There’s also a spoiler at the back, a lower body skirt package, fog lights up front and SE-design 17-inch alloys at each corner. Overall the changes add up to a genuine advantage in the appearance department: the SE is, to my eye, a markedly better-looking car than the LE or XLE.

Inside, when driven with restraint, the Camry Hybrid SE is exceptionally quiet thanks to the hybrid drivetrain and acoustic glass, and it’s fitted out nicely with plenty of soft-surface materials and a sporty ambience. There’s certainly a lot of interior space, not only in the front seats but also in the back seats and trunk. The latter will hold 370 litres of luggage, which is a little less than a regular Camry because the 1.6-kWh nickel-metal hydride motive battery is mounted back there. There

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is a back-seat pass-through, but it’s necessarily small and restricted to one side of the trunk only.

The Camry Hybrid SE gets the same unique interior trim as the conventionally-powered Camry SE, with unique sport seats and upholstery, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, aluminum scuff plates, and silver-coloured trim on the centre console and door pulls. A six-speaker audio system with 6.1-inch display screen is standard, as is USB and Bluetooth connectivity.

Standard kit on all Camry Hybrids includes dual-zone automatic climate control, push-button start, a backup camera, cruise control, power locks and windows, a unique and good-looking blue-tinted hybrid instrument package, and plenty more. Unfortunately it appears that you can’t get a moonroof, navigation system, or heated

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front seats with the Camry Hybrid SE, so if you want any of these popular options you’ll need to step up to the more conservatively styled Camry Hybrid XLE.

The Toyota Camry SE starts at $31,160 including the $1,620 destination fee, which is just shy of the Camry Hybrid XLE’s destination-in base price of $31,235 (and a couple thousand dollars more than the LE’s price of $29,380). By combining the practicality and sporty styling cues of the regular Camry SE with the superior fuel economy of the Camry Hybrid LE, the Camry Hybrid SE offers an interesting option for those who understand the advantages of hybrid power but don’t necessarily want the image that goes along with driving one. It also offers a small measure of exclusivity: Toyota says the 2014.5 Camry Hybrid SE will be built in a limited run of just 5,000 cars (although there’s no word on whether it might then return in larger numbers for 2015). If you like the idea of a hybrid-powered family sedan with a sporting demeanour, you’ll want to check it out.

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