Environmental Group Urges Toyota to Bring the Estima Hybrid Minivan to the States

As we mentioned in a previous post, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has put forward a minivan concept -- dubbed the UCS Vanguard -- that the organization says will reduce fuel consumption, boost fuel economy and go easy on the environment.

In addition to a recent meeting with General Motors where the UCS tried to impress upon the automaker their desire to see manufacturers develop more fuel efficient vehicles, the group just started a petition to get Toyota to bring the Toyota Estima hybrid minivan (sold in Japan) to the states.

From the UCS petition:

In Japan...families have a choice completely unavailable in America—a hybrid minivan with fuel economy on par with a compact car. We estimate that the Toyota Estima Hybrid could reach around 35 miles per gallon in the United States. That’s a whopping 50 percent improvement for a minivan!

Re-engineering the Japanese-market Estima to bring it to the United States could be cost-prohibitive, so I'd wager we'd be more likely to see a hybrid Toyota Sienna on our shores sooner than the Estima. That said, the UCS could be on to something -- we've received many emails from readers asking about when the first hybrid or diesel minivans may be available, and our article on fuel-efficient minivans is consistently one of the most popular pages on the About.com minivans site.

Think the UCS is on to something? You can read about (and sign) the UCS Toyota Estima hybrid petition, then let us know your thoughts on the lack of diesel, hybrid and alternate-fuel powerplants for minivans by clicking on the "comments" link below this post.

Related:

• Top 5 Fuel-Saving Minivans [article]
• Fuel-Saving Minivan Options [article]
• About.com Alternative Fuels site

^{photo: © Toyota Motor Company}