In announcing it had sold more than 100,000 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) last financial year, Toyota Australia also confirmed the waiting time for one of the country’s most in-demand new cars has come down substantially.
During and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic customers could expect to wait as long as two years for a RAV4 Hybrid, with Toyota telling CarsGuide as recently as December last year that a 13- to 18-month delivery estimate was still the norm.
But thanks to “substantially higher production” in the first half of 2024 a RAV4 Hybrid ordered today should hit a buyer’s driveway in a much more reasonable four months.
Toyota says RAV4 led the brand’s hybrid sales surge over the past 12 months with a new high of 38,632 deliveries, representing 93.1 per cent of the mid-size SUV’s record 41,512 sales.
And Toyota Australia Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley said, “Importantly, the stock keeps coming – and our order intake remains strong.”
“We always knew that supply constraints were masking the true level of demand for Toyota vehicles, especially hybrids,” Mr Hanley said.
And the RAV4 Hybrid isn’t alone. Shorter average wait times for Toyota hybrid models are now around three months for C-HR, five to six months for Corolla and Yaris Cross and seven to eight months for Kluger and Yaris.
Among other (non-hybrid) models, HiLux has also improved to three to four months and LandCruiser 300 is now under six months, although Toyota is at pains to point out these times can vary depending on a customer’s location and the vehicle specification chosen.
Toyota also confirmed the RAV4’s 2024 year-to-date sales have risen almost 88 per cent to 25,404 vehicles of which 23,934 (94.2 per cent) are hybrids.
Which reinforces Toyota Australia’s announcement last month that, due to customer demand, it has stopped taking orders for petrol-only variants of RAV4 and all other models where HEVs are available.