Toyota wants to double worldwide sales of its hybrids to over 1 million units a year within the next decade and is adding production capacity to hep it get there. In Japan today, Toyota announced plans to add production of Camry hybrids at two more plants in Australia and Thailand. The Thai plant will start first with about 9,000 hybrids per year starting in 2009. At a press conference attended by both Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe, plans were announced to build hybrids at the company’s Altona plant near Melbourne. The plant will start turning out 10,000 hybrids a year in early 2010. The state of Victoria, where the plant is located, reportedly provided $35 million (AUS) in tax incentives to get Toyota add hybrid production. A number of Australian governments have previously pledged to purchase domestically build hybrid vehicles for their fleets as soon as someone builds them. The Camry announcement is the first; General Motors’ Holden division will likely join in as well at some point.

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Lexus Australia’s chief executive, John Roca, gave up a number of product details to The Australian in an interview this past weekend, including the addition of an “F” variant of the GS sedan and possibly a full-size LS limo. Both models are aimed to attack luxury stalwarts Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz by offering a number of high-performance variants and also developing a new model that would slot in below the IS sedan to take on the BMW 1-series and the Audi A3. That model is still a few years away, but it will be an integral part of Lexus’ commitment to reach one million global sales in the next two to three years.

The other element includes offering hybrid versions of every vehicle it sells, plus the introduction of a hybrid-only model that will be unveiled in concept form this January at the Detroit Auto Show. Toyota’s luxury arm plans to release a redesigned five-seater RX next year, based off the LF-Xh concept that bowed in Tokyo, although there’s no word on the rumored seven-seat variant due out before the end of the decade.

Naturally, no conversation about Lexus would be complete without some mention of a two-door, coupe/convertible version of the IS, a model that’s been sorely lacking from the Lexus lineup, plus, the LF-A supercar, which should finally come to market in 2011, but may only be available in left-hand drive.

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Ford has apparently finally heard the call and green-lighted development of a new global rear wheel drive platform and a family of vehicles to be built on it. However, unlike General Motors, Ford will not rely on its Australian division to do the heavy lifting. Since the collapse of the U.S. dollar has made the United States a low cost country, the development of the new platform has been moved back to Dearborn. The most recent attempt at a rear-drive architecture that debuted on the latest Australian Ford Falcon was something of a debacle for the company. Unlike Holden, which designed its RWD Zeta platform to be built in right- and left-hand-drive versions, the new Falcon platform is right-hand drive only. This new Ford architecture to be developed near Detroit, however, will spawn models for both the Ford and Lincoln brands, including an all-new Mustang. With Ford making a major push to reduce weight in future models, hopefully these new cars will come in a lot lighter than the GM equivalents, as well.

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