While EVs, especially BEVs capture the headlines, regular hybrids continue their strong recent rebound — driven greatly by a growing line up of hybrids from Toyota. Across both the Lexus and Toyota brands, Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc., now offers 15 regular hybrids, along with three plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), and one BEV.
The RAV4 SUV, which has been the 4th-best selling vehicle in America for several years (after the F-150, Silverado, and RAM 1500 pickups), saw the regular hybrid version account for 42% of RAV4 sales in the 1H of 2022. And if you include the RAV4 Prime PHEV numbers, you get to 48% of RAV4 sales having a battery in the vehicle.
In the 1H of 2022, sales of the regular ICE version of the RAV4 declined 34.2% and accounted for only 52% of total RAV4 sales from 72% in 1H of 2021.
While gas prices have declined from their recent highs, it is possible that RAV4 Hybrid sales may approach 50% of total RAV sales in Q3 of 2022. But we should definitely see combined sales of the RAV4 Hybrid and RAV4 Prime PHEV account for more than 50% of RAV4 sales in Q3 2022.