Toyota Australia smashes records for hybrid sales – again
It has been 19 years since Toyota launched its hybrid technology, but it is now finally reaching mainstream popularity.
Toyota continues to smash its own record for hybrid car sales in Australia, with more than one in every five vehicles it has sold so far this year driven by petrol-electric power.
The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid topped the monthly sales charts for the first time in Australian automotive history, in August 2020.
At the same time Toyota shattered its 2019 annual record of 27,000 hybrid sales, delivering more than 33,400 hybrid cars in only the first eight months of 2020.
Official new-car sales figures for October due to be released this Thursday are expected to show another record for hybrid cars.
Toyota says hybrid power is on track to represent more than 20 per cent – at least one in five – of the new cars it sells in 2020. And the figure will expand next year as more hybrid models arrive.
Toyota’s hybrid line-up currently includes the Yaris hatch, Corolla hatch and sedan, Camry sedan, RAV4, and three Prius variants.
The hybrid line-up will be boosted this week with the arrival of a petrol-electric option in the new Yaris Cross city SUV range, and there will be a hybrid version of the new generation Kluger family SUV due in the first half of next year.
There have also been unsubstantiated overseas reports claiming there will eventually be hybrid versions of the HiLux ute and LandCruiser four-wheel-drive, however they are believed to be some years away.
“I certainly can see hybrids expanding well beyond the 20 per cent that we recorded last year … we’re already over 20 per cent this year,” said the sales and marketing boss of Toyota Australia, Sean Hanley.
“So I think (eventually) … hybrid will be just one type of power train available as we progress to reduce our CO2 footprint.”
Mr Hanley said hybrid will be one of a number of eco options, which eventually may include pure electric power, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen-powered fuel cell cars.
The Toyota Australia veteran executive predicted in the future there will be a “combination of four powertrains”.
“Utimately, the market will determine that,” said Mr Hanley.
MORE: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid
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