Toyota tops annual sales charts for 26th time

TOYOTA has taken its place as Australia’s favourite automotive brand again in 2022 – the 26^th time the Japanese importer has topped the new car sales ladder.

Despite global supply challenges, Toyota posted its highest sales tally in 14 years according to figures released by VFACTS, industry data showing Toyota accounted for more than one in five new vehicles delivered across the nation last year.

For the record, Toyota sold 231,050 cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles in 2022, an increase of 3.3 per cent on the previous year’s tally.

The overall results for 2022 show Toyota have now been Australia’s leading automotive brand throughout the past two decades, as well as six other years since first achieving the top rung on the sales ladder back in 1991.

Toyota is the only brand to achieve 200,000 sales in a single year, exceeding that level in each of the past 11 years, and 18 out of the past 19 years.

The industry statistic also confirm the HiLux is again Australian’s top-selling car for the seventh year in a row, improving its own result by almost 22 per cent to set a record of 64,391 unit sales across 2022.

Toyota says the number is the highest annual total for any vehicle in Australia since 2005.

The HiLux set a new industry record for four-wheel drive sales with 47,239 units sold, while some 17,062 examples of the two-wheel drive HiLux meant it was the model’s best annual sales result since 2008.

Toyota says the HiLux is the only utility vehicle to have ever ranked as Australia’s best-selling model, and that HiLux has also led the Northern Territory market for each of the past 22 years, Queensland for 16 years in a row, and Western Australia for 15 years straight.

The ever-popular Corolla hatch and sedan range extended the model’s unbroken reign to 10 year as the best-selling passenger car (25,284 units), while the RAV4 SUV scored a hat-trick as the best-selling mid-size SUV (34,845 units) and the LandCruiser Prado achieved record sales for the second year in a row (21,102).

Hybrid powered models also set a new high. Thirty-one and a half per cent of all Toyota vehicles delivered over 2022 featured a hybridised powertrain, in all some 72,815 units. If hybridised Toyota models were their own brand, it would rank sixth on the Australian sales chart.

The RAV4 was Australia’s best-selling hybrid model with 26,547 unit sales, or 76.2 per cent of all RAV4 models sold.

Toyota Australia says the latest hybrid sales record lifts its all-time electrified vehicle sales to 315,087 vehicles – a total it says has reduced tailpipe emissions by the same amount as approximately 95,000 battery electric vehicles.

The news comes ahead of Toyota’s planned released of its own BEV, the fully electric bZ4X mid-sized SUV due in local showrooms later this year.

Speaking on Toyota Australia’s sales success, Toyota Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley thanked customers for their loyalty and patience while acknowledging the commitment of employees and dealer network to deliver vehicles as quickly as possible.

“We are extremely grateful – and humbled – to report that our order bank remains very strong due to the trust placed in our brand and our vehicle line-up by so many Australian companies and individuals,” he said.

“While it remains difficult to make predictions in this evolving supply situation, we can assure you that we will be working harder than ever to deliver more than 200,000 vehicles to our customers yet again in 2023.

“We recognise that Toyota is extremely fortunate that well-recognised nameplates like HiLux, Corolla and LandCruiser – all of which have more than half a century of heritage and success in Australia – continue to deliver on the unique motoring needs and requirements of diverse buyers across the country.”

“We are also energised by the knowledge that electrification through our hybrid technology continues to lead the industry in supporting our customers with practical and affordable ways of substantially reducing their emissions today, and every day.”