Market Insight: New Prado to lead the pack
BY MATT BROGAN | 25th Nov 2024
TOYOTA is set to break records in 2025 with its newly launched LandCruiser Prado 250 Series expected to retail an unprecedented 27,000 units within its first 12 months on the market.
Strong orders – currently in excess of 17,000 – and secure supply will ensure the fifth-generation Prado outsells all that have come before it.
Toyota Motor Company Australia (TMCA) says the Prado will retail 5700 units more than in its previous best-selling year (2021) – a number that will see the model retail some 1463 sales more than the current year-to-date figure for the segment-leading Ford Everest.
Speaking with motoring media at the Australian launch of the Prado in Darwin, Toyota Australia public affairs manager Jeremie Smith said the model has played a significant role for the importer since its debut in July of 1996.
“In the 27 full calendar years that it has been in the market, LandCrusier Prado has been the best-selling vehicle against its competitors for 21 of those years, and runner-up five times,” he said.
“While we won’t take the segment title this year, due to over-achieving our runouts, we expect the newest model in the LandCruiser family will redress that situation in 2025.”
Adding his support to the claim, Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley said orders for the new-generation LandCruiser Prado are the highest yet, with a record sales year on the forecast.
“I can tell you that our production allocation for the first 12 months is above 25,000 units – in fact, it’s closer to 27,000 units,” he said.
“As of today, our dealers have taken more than 17,000 orders (for the new LandCruiser Prado)”, he said.
With 27,000 LandCruiser Prado variants allocated to Australian Toyota dealerships over the coming 12 months, Mr Hanley said it is likely the model will set a new sales record come the end of 2025.
The previous record for the LandCruiser Prado was set in 2021 when 21,299 deliveries were recorded.
Barring any shipping delays, Mr Hanley said it is “quite conceivable” the LandCruiser Prado will set a new sales record.
“Customer demand is more intense than it was even with the first-generation model,” he added.
“If you have a look at the fact we have ‘sold’ 17,000 (units) in a very short time, (then) it is quite conceivable (that the record will be broken). But in the end, our customers will decide.”
Looking at the success of the Prado over the last decade – and against its nearest competitors – several models have closed in upon the sales numbers of the revered off-roader, and others that have fallen by the wayside.
Most notably, the Jeep Grand Cherokee – which outsold the Prado a decade ago – is now languishing with just hundreds of sales per annum (down from 16,582 sales and a 15.4 per cent share of the sub-$70K large SUV segment in 2014 to just 564 units and 2.6 market share points to the end of October 2024).
Ford’s Everest has grown from selling less than one-tenth the number of Prado models in its first year of sale (2015) to become the country’s best-selling off-road SUV. Year-to-date figures show the Everest with 21,281 units sold – or more than the LandCrusier Prado achieved in its best year on the market (2021).
With two months to go – and its own promising order bank – the run to first place will be hotly contested in 2025, with both the Ford Everest and Toyota Prado likely to sell in similar quantities.
As noted by GoAuto previously, sales of the Everest have increased by 79.3 per cent year-on-year, the model’s year-to-date sales showing a comfortable lead on segment favourites, including the Isuzu MU-X (15,584), Subaru Outback (8857), Mitsubishi Pajero Sport (6367), and Toyota Fortuner (2477).
It is also likely that newcomers to the segment will gather momentum across the coming sales year, adding to solid results already in the making. They include the GWM Tank 300 (3309 sales YTD) and Tank 500 (1387), and LDV D90 (2009).
