• Toyota hybrids outsell the entire range of Kia, Hyundai, Ford
• One in every 3 new Toyota sold in Australia is a hybrid
• Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid to launch there next

If Toyota were to park its hybrid models under a different, independent brand, it would be Australia’s fourth biggest car brand, according to market insights data published by Go Auto.

In the first quarter of 2022, Toyota sold 58,507 cars, of which 32.5 percent (18,884 cars) are hybrids.

Sales of Toyota hybrids alone outsell the total sales of Kia (17,452 units), Hyundai (17,293) and Ford (13,383).

Globally, Toyota passed the 20-million hybrid sales mark in February this year. Toyota sold its first hybrid, the first generation Toyota Prius, in 1997.

Today, one in every three Toyota sold in Australia is a hybrid. The Toyota Camry Hybrid is the most popular electrified Toyota model there, with 87,151 units sold since 2010.

Of course, a lot of the sales came from fleet sales to taxi companies, but that itself is a testament of the reliability and low running cost of Toyota hybrids – the two criteria most important to taxi companies.

The next most popular Toyota hybrid Down Under is the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid (cumulative sales 73,378 units), followed by the Toyota Corolla Hybrid (52,793 units).

The next hybrid to be launched in Australia is the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, due in the second half of 2022.

However, the Australian specs Corolla Cross will be a different from ours, as theirs will be the European market model, with a different headlamp design and a bigger 2.0-litre hybrid engine that makes a combined output of 199 PS, versus our 1.8-litre unit that makes 122 PS.

Closer to home, hybrid adoption is still fairly new but it is fast becoming a mainstream option.

More than 40 percent of all Toyota Corolla Cross sales are now coming from the Hybrid variant.

In Thailand, the figure is 85 percent, partly due to the fact that 3 out of 4 variants of the Corolla Cross there are hybrids. The regular combustion engine 1.8-litre variant is designated as the cheapest and lowest specifications variant.

Also read: Pros and Cons: Almost perfect, the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid is why good is good enough

That’s quite different from UMW Toyota Motor’s strategy, which offers more or less the same level of features between the regular combustion engine 1.8V and 1.8 Hybrid, meaning that Malaysian customers genuinely wanted the hybrid.

Also read: Here are the post-SST prices for Toyota Corolla Cross – circa RM 3k – RM 5k increase

In Japan, 90 percent of Toyota Corolla Cross sales come from the Hybrid variant.