Toyota Australia have been caught off guard by the popularity of the new RAV4 Hybrid Cruiser, with the company revealing the official wait time for delivery of the vehicle currently sits at approximately six months.

Despite only making its Australian debut in quarter two of 2019, the affordable hybrid has become the benchmark vehicle in the under $60,000 medium SUV market segment, with 19 percent of the market as of January 2020, thanks in part to the Hybrid version.

Toyota Australia were blindsided by the immediate interest levels in the vehicle, with hybrid and electric vehicles largely failing to take-off in Australia prior to the release of the RAV4 hybrid. The company predicted that 20 percent of RAV4 sales would come from the hybrid model, however that number is closer to 60 percent in reality, leading to the long delays in vehicle availability.

Just one month after the hybrid model went on sale, a waiting period of four months had already opened up.

However, seven months on, Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, said the waiting time is now even longer.

“The truth is, the highest it got to was around eight months, and that was late last year,” said Hanley.

“We think by the end of this month, we will be able to get that down to around six months, and then by the second half, we think we might bring that down even further, maybe four months.”

With wait times for the popular new vehicle constantly changing, Hanley also said Toyota have to do a better job informing customers of any updates to avoid the spreading of misinformation.

“What we got to do – and we understand we’ve got to do a better job of – is communicate to our customers those dates. But we’ve also got to open up the window of that communication to our dealer network, so we’ve recognised that.”

“We’ve looked at this over the last two weeks because it’s deeply important we get this right. We’ve now put a process in place that will enable our dealers to give more accurate information to the customer. We’ve been communicating with our customers in various ways to reassure them the car is coming.”

Hybrid vehicles made up 13.5 percent of Toyota Australia’s total sales in 2019, a figure Toyota expects to grow in 2020 as a larger supply of existing hybrid models become available along with the arrival of the new Yaris hybrid.

Source: Caradvice | Toyota RAV4 Hybrid waiting time changes again, now it’s six months

14 Feb 2020