August VFACTS: Toyota RAV4 Hybrid tops the charts

The Toyota RAV4 Hybrid has posted a milestone in the Australian market, outselling any other car during one month – a first for a hybrid of any kind.

Total sales in August were down by a massive 28.8 per cent – from 85,633 in August 2019 to just 60,986 last month – but the RAV4 not only showed every other vehicle a clean pair of heels, it more than doubled its sales numbers from 12 months ago.

In August 2019, the RAV4 sold 2006 units, but last month the medium SUV’s sales grew by an amazing 140 per cent to 4825 sales. Of those, fully 4405 were hybrids – an historic moment for hybrid powertrain vehicles, with sales of the hybrid RAV4 alone surpassing the second best-selling car last month, the Ford Ranger.

The extraordinary sales performance does reflect extra supply allocation from July to catch up with a backlog of orders due to restricted supply of the hybrid models when the new RAV4 arrived here last year.

Toyota is seeing the fruits of its prolonged efforts to convert Australian motorists to the hybrid cause after literally decades of marketing models like the Prius in the local market. For the year to date, hybrid sales account for 26.6 per cent of all Toyota sales.

Other than Toyota’s good news, however, there was little reason to smile for the rest of the market.

In addition to the year-on-year slump of 28.8 per cent, every single brand in the top 10, including Toyota and Kia, has sold fewer cars than the year to date. To a very large extent, that would be due to Victoria entering stage-four lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Vehicle sales in Victoria during August were 65.9 per cent lower, year on year.

For the year to date, the national sales figure of 575,906 is only 20.4 per cent down from the figure of 723,283 for the same period in 2019.

“The industry has moved swiftly to implement robust COVIDSafe protocols to ensure the health and wellbeing of employees and customers is preserved,” said Tony Weber, Chief Executive of the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries.

“However, it is particularly difficult for our members and their Victorian dealer networks under the current Stage 4 Restrictions, and this is reflected in the reduced sales figures.

“While we have the utmost respect for essential health priorities, the automotive industry supports the re-opening of our economy under appropriate COVIDSafe protocols.

“We’ve seen 29 consecutive months of diminishing sales in this industry, and there’s no doubt our members are feeling the pinch. The move to commence the reopening of industry and markets, especially in Victoria, needs to start as soon as possible,” Weber was quoted as saying in a press release.