For its extended petrol-electric range, the market leader is driving big sales as the overall market slides off a cliff. But will falling fuel prices change the trend?
Toyota Australia’s push to increase the petrol-electric hybrid portfolio is paying off, with the firm hitting a new high-water mark following a gradual drop in overall car sales.
Toyota registered 7957 of its hybrid cars sold this year, up 166 percent in 2019 during the first two months. Nearly a quarter of the company’s cars sold this year are hybrids.
The company claims that the hybrid variants comprised 62 percent of RAV4s and 61 percent of Camrys sold in February. While the Corolla’s count was an almost as good 52 percent. Also, all of this trio were among the top 10 most successful overall vehicles. Sitting second, eighth and fourth respectively.
More than 2000 RAV4 hybrids were sold for more sense. Meaning that even without any counting of non-hybrid sales. It was still the most common SUV of any type in the country.
The Estimated Target:
This cumulative figure puts the company ahead of its 2020 target of 40,000 overall hybrid sales, equal to approximately one-third of passenger and SUV sales. And 20% of its overall sales.
This designs a hybrid version of all the products by 2025, including the LandCruiser and HiLux. This year it will add the Yaris hybrid but ax the similarly-sized Prius C. Foresee a Kluger hybrid in 2021. But production delays from the US plant indicate that this timeline is far from definite.
Another way of looking at it is that if Toyota Hybrid were a stand-alone brand. It would now rate seventh overall in the industry. Ahead of Renault, Volkswagen, and Honda.
Sean Hanley, vice president of sales and marketing at Toyota Australia said demand for hybrids. As “accelerating faster than expected”. Prompting the company to boost its 2020 target.
Supply appears to be the biggest impediment to further sales. There are said to be few issues on the Corolla, Prius, Prius V, and C-HR hybrids. But the company is struggling to get enough stock on Camry and RAV4.
