Toyota says hybrid vehicles are now a mainstream choice for Australian motorists following record sales in 2012.
Local drivers bought an all-time high of 13,919 hybrid vehicles last year – an increase of more than 57.8% on the previous year.
Industry figures reveal that almost 44% of hybrid vehicles were bought by private customers last year, compared with fewer than 29% in 2011.
Toyota sold in excess of 10,000 hybrids in a year for the first time – or more than three-quarters of all hybrid vehicles.
Toyota’s tally of 10,787 petrol-electric hybrids delivered in 2012 represented almost 5% of the company’s total of 218,176 sales.
If Toyota’s hybrids were counted as a separate brand, their sales would have put them in 18th place in the Australian market – ahead of 50 other makes including Chrysler, Citroën, Peugeot, Renault and Volvo.
In passenger cars, Toyota’s hybrids outsold Audi and came within 500 units of BMW.
Toyota dealers have now sold more than 40,000 hybrid vehicles in Australia since the first-generation Prius arrived in 2001. The previous record year was 8444 Toyota hybrids in 2010.
Last year, Camry Hybrid achieved its highest annual sales of 7107 vehicles, cementing its position as Australia’s best-selling hybrid vehicle.
Camry Hybrid achieved a record for any month of 1143 cars in December, outselling Ford Falcon in the process.
The expansion of the Prius brand into a family of three cars last year was significant, with the Prius hatch being joined by the Prius c city car and the seven-seat Prius v.
Prius c was the most popular family member with 1883 cars going to customers. Prius v racked up 936 sales and the Prius hatch – now in its third generation – achieved 861 deliveries.
In addition, Lexus sold more than 2300 hybrid vehicles in 2012 – or more than one-third of its total sales.
Toyota Australia executive director sales and marketing Matthew Callachor says the growth in popularity of hybrid vehicles is significant.
“The growing popularity of hybrid cars shows they are now regarded as a mainstream choice for local motorists due to a combination of their performance and their excellent fuel economy,” Callachor said.
“In passenger cars, hybrid sales were up 61.1% last year, compared with growth of just less than one per cent for diesels,” he says.
“Significantly, the number of private buyers opting for hybrid passenger cars more than doubled while those choosing diesel passenger cars fell 6.8.”
Last year, Toyota globally passed one million hybrid sales in a year for the first time. Its cumulative hybrid sales are now approaching five million.
Toyota in Japan has estimated that its worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles have led to approximately 30 million fewer tonnes1 of CO2 being emitted compared with petrol-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.
On the same basis, the company says those vehicles have saved approximately 11 billion litres of petrol (about 55 million 200-litre drums).
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