Hyundai declares war on the best-selling RAV4

Hyundai Australia has declared war on the best-selling Toyota RAV4, confirming to carsales this week it wants to double sales of its new Tucson Hybrid from 500 units per month to 1000.

That ambitious goal would still be less than a fifth of the RAV4’s monthly volume, but that hasn’t dampened the Korean brand’s spirits as it forges on with its multi-pathway fuel strategy and looks to claw-back some ground on the market-leader.

“Toyota is number one in Australia for hybrid and we at Hyundai are proud to be number two in the market for hybrid year to date in 2024,” chief operating officer John Kett said.

“In the case of RAV4 Hybrid, yes, we are going after it proactively with Tucson Hybrid – and we are not afraid to shout about it.

“While the RAV4 Hybrid is market leader and undoubtedly a superb vehicle, we believe Tucson Hybrid is a better product by most objective measures, especially in its design, features and equipment.”

One area the Toyota has the Tucson Hybrid licked however is fuel consumption – undeniably the primary focus of any mainstream hybrid.

Hyundai claims the Tucson Hybrid will average 5.3L/100km on the combined cycle, whereas Toyota nominates an official figure of 4.7L/100km for the front-drive RAV4s, rising ever so slightly to 4.8L/100km for the AWD versions.

There is of course more to a vehicle than just how much fuel it uses, even for hybrids, and we’ll be pitching the two models against one another in the coming weeks to see which one is more worthy of your hard-earned cash.

While dishing out the fighting words, the Hyundai executives are also being realistic and know it’s highly unlikely the Tucson will ever top the RAV4 for outright sales volume and are hence looking to lockdown second place in the rapidly expanding hybrid medium SUV market.

“Tucson Hybrid is selling well at around 500 units a month, but we know it can do better – we want to double that number,” PR general manager Bill Thomas said.

“Looking at the market, it seems no-one sells more than 500-ish per month in a Hybrid model, except Toyota. So there is a real opportunity for us here.”

And it’s for this reason the core 2024 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid range – Tucson FWD, Elite FWD, Elite N-Line AWD, Premium AWD – is the subject of a drive-away offer at the moment, shaving between $2989 and $3595 off the final total (based on a NSW postcode).

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