Toyota RAV4 leapfrogs Ford Ranger, closes in on HiLux

It's official: hybrids are hot.

The Australian new car market may be approaching two years of declining sales – thanks to negative consumer sentiment, bushfires and now the Coronavirus – but Toyota is firing on all-cylinders… or should that be magnets?

Sales of the new Toyota RAV4 jumped almost 106 per cent in February (from 1639 to 3375 units), leapfrogging the evergreen Ford Ranger ute to take second spot in the Australian sales charts for the month.

But dig a little deeper and it’s clear buyers are going troppo for the hybrid version, which accounted for a whopping 62 per cent of February's RAV4 sales.

That the RAV4 was only 46 sales behind Australia's top-selling vehicle, the Toyota HiLux ute, is telling, and shows that hybrids SUVs are hitting a sweet spot with buyers.

As the price of plug-less hybrids comes down, their appeal goes up and it's not just the RAV4 that is going gangbusters.

An impressive 61 per cent of Toyota Camry and 52 per cent of Corolla vehicles sold in February were hybrids, which pushed Toyota's overall hybrid sales tally to just over 25 per cent of total monthly sales, a new record.

And Toyota says those percentages could go higher.

"We successfully negotiated additional shipments of hybrid vehicles that will arrive throughout 2020, but even these higher supplies are under pressure due to the unprecedented popularity of hybrids," said Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley.

He noted that traffic to the Toyoyta.com.au website's hybrid pages had skyrocketed in the past 12 months. The boom in demand for hybrids means delivery times will continue to stretch out, however, with a queue stretching up to six months for some RAV4 hybrid variants.

"…delivery times for some variants will not improve as quickly as we had anticipated," noted Hanley.

"While this is clearly not desirable, we will keep negotiating for an even greater share of global production."

Toyota has committed to launching a hybrid version of every model it sells by 2025, which is likely to lead to big sales spikes for other popular SUVs in the next few years, including the upcoming Toyota LandCruiser 300 series and new Toyota Prado hybrids.

"The boom in inquiry, consideration and sales with our latest hybrids underlines the success of Toyota's global strategy to popularise electrified vehicles to reduce fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions," said Hanley.

Subaru is hoping to capitalise on the increasing demand for hybrid models with the recent launch of its e-Boxer Forester and XV hybrid vehicles – although those models have a three-month wait list as well.

Expect the upcoming Subaru Impreza hybrid to experience similar supply bottlenecks.

As plug-less hybrids continue to find favour with Aussie buyers, traditional favourites like the Mazda3 are falling out of favour as buyers tighten their purse strings.

While it's still a strong seller for the brand over the past couple of decades, sales of the Mazda3 dropped by 46 per cent for the month, from 2655 to 1435, in part due to base pricing for the upmarket new Mazda3 rising by around $4500.

Passenger cars in general have been on a downward trend for years and dual-cab utes are in the doldrums too, the segment dipping by almost 22 per cent so far in 2020.

While the HiLux is the ute leader overall, the Ranger is still top dog when it comes to sales of 4x4 models, which are more lucrative.

SUVs were the only segment to record positive growth in 2020. But a closer look at the numbers show that budget brands are doing very well.

In the top 10, Kia was the only brand to record significant growth but further down the ladder Chinese brands have been doubling their market share in some cases.

Take MG, for example. The brand's cut-price MG3 compact hatch and MG ZS small SUVs have helped the brand more than double its sales so far in 2020, from 1013 to 2082 units.

Other Chinese brands have also seen big gains (albeit coming off smaller bases), with Haval sales up 200 per cent, Great Wall up 64 per cent and LDV up 23 per cent.

The 2020s will be a difficult decade for many car-makers as they try to navigate the myriad challenges ahead, but it's clear that while many buyers are putting off car purchases as economic conditions worsen, hybrids appear to be a safe bet.

Toyota is ahead of the curve here and will continue to reap the benefits as models like the hybrid HiLux arrive.