Toyota Camry Hybrid order book closed

Toyota Australia has closed its order book for a second model in its model range: the Toyota Camry Hybrid.

Citing overwhelming demand and prolonged delivery times of “above two years”, Australia’s biggest auto brand has opted to stop taking orders for the popular sedan while the factory attempts to clear or at least mitigate the backlog.

More than 90 per cent of all new Camrys delivered so far this year (6490 out of 7130) have been hybrid variants, which isn’t much of a surprise given all but one of the five Camry variants available in Australia feature a fleet-friendly hybrid powertrain.

Toyota’s almost unprecedented move comes seven months after carsales reported customers would face delivery wait times of up to four years for their new Camry Hybrid as of March, when Toyota said it would trim that period through “substantially improved supply” as of May.

Lead times may have come down from four years, but more than two years is still an awful long time wait for a new car – just ask the patiently waiting customers of the Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series V8 and Hyundai i20 N customers.

While order books for 70 Series V8s will remain closed well into 2024 due to overwhelming demand, Toyota dealers continue to take orders for the RAV4 despite reported wait times of up to three years.

Last month Toyota Australia told carsales that RAV4 wait times are expected to drop to under 12 months by mid-2024, but Camry Hybrid customers would continue to face longer delivery delays as the world’s biggest car-maker restores its supply chain to pre-COVID levels.

Late yesterday Toyota Australia sales, marketing and franchise operations vice-president Sean Hanley said the company was “doing everything possible to increase supply for Australia and to expedite delivery of vehicles as they arrive”.

“Our global production teams have consistently adopted countermeasures that have improved the supply of components affected by global shortages, such as semiconductors,” he said.

“Throughout this journey, we are particularly humbled that our local customers have maintained their trust in Toyota and remained loyal to our brand.”

Camry sales are down almost 12 per cent so far this year to 7130 units, but it’s unlikely the Camry will lose its title as Australia’s best-selling mainstream medium car given it accounts for more than 69 per cent of the market segment so far this year – almost seven times that of its nearest rival (the Mazda6, closely followed by the Skoda Octavia).

But Australia’s most popular mid-size sedan remains the Tesla Model 3, which to September this year has chalked up 14,540 deliveries – more than double that of the Camry and more than every other passenger model – including the Toyota Corolla.

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