Toyota’s RAV4 was Australia’s best-selling vehicle last month, enabling the market leader to achieve two industry firsts with more than half the brand’s total sales being Hybrid Electric vehicles (HEVs) and surpassing 10,000 HEV deliveries in a single month.
Official figures released today show RAV4 deliveries to Australian customers hit a new monthly high of 5,857 vehicles in April.
Of these RAV4s, HEVs accounted for 94 per cent or 5,504 vehicles – another record for the popular engine variant.
The previous records for RAV4 total sales (5,070) and HEV deliveries (4,728) were set just one month earlier, in March this year, as Toyota continues to ramp up its moves to slash customer wait times.
On the back of the RAV4’s surging popularity, Toyota dealers retailed the highest number of Hybrid Electric models for any month since the company introduced the first Prius in October 2001.
The new record of 10,972 HEVs represented 52.8 per cent of the brand’s 20,771 sales for the month – the highest share on record.
Toyota’s HEVs, on their own, have outsold every other brand in the market for the past three months in a row – and for the year so far (35,383 vehicles).
It was the first time Toyota has sold more than 10,000 hybrids in any month and the first time its Hybrid Electric tally has accounted for more than half its total monthly sales.
In fact, Toyota sold more Hybrid Electric vehicles last month alone than it did in any calendar year before as recently as 2018.
Including sales of the fully electric bZ4X, Toyota’s electrified share of total sales – HEV and BEV – was 53.2 per cent.
April was only the third time RAV4 has led the entire market. It first achieved the feat in July 2020 and repeated it the following month when RAV4 Hybrid Electric sales alone would have been enough to top the industry sales charts.
Toyota’s Vice President Sales, Marketing & Franchise Operations Sean Hanley said the company’s global production teams, local organisation and nationwide dealer network were focused on delivering the maximum number of vehicles to customers as quickly as possible.
“Record deliveries are not a goal in themselves,” Mr Hanley said. “They highlight the pent-up demand for hybrids and the success being achieved in substantially reducing customer wait times.”
“While it would be easy to assume this result is simply driven by historic demand, it is not the full picture. Customer orders in April remained high, demonstrating a growing number of Australians are seeking fuel-efficient hybrids that are practical, capable and affordable.
“We remain focused on meeting this demand. Based on our delivery plan, average wait times for Hybrid Electric variants of RAV4, Corolla hatch and C-HR will be back to normal by the end of next month – just three to four months, if not even better.” Mr Hanley said.
