Toyota RAV4 News

Close to 6000 examples of the 2026 Toyota RAV4 are the subject of a safety recall to rectify a manufacturing fault just months after it went on sale. The Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communication and the Arts has issued a safety recall notice impacting 5925 RAV4s sold new in Australia in 2026. It said a potential fault with the hybrid system’s motor/generator may cause a “loss of motive power whilst driving, (increasing) the risk of an accident, causing serious injury or death to vehicle occupants and other road users.” It confirms that plug-in hybrid examples of front-wheel drive (AXAP62R) and all-wheel drive (AXAP64R) versions of the RAV4 have been impacted. The notice said, “Due to a manufacturing issue with the motor generator electronic control unit (MG-ECU), the motor initialisation process may not complete correctly. This may prevent the electric motor from operating as intended at higher speeds,” the notice said. The department added, “If the electric motor does not operate as intended, warning lights will illuminate and the vehicle may enter fail-safe mode or shut down, resulting in a loss of motive power. “A loss of motive power whilst driving increases the risk of an accident, causing serious injury or death to vehicle occupants and other road users.” All grades of the nominated models sold this year are potentially included and the department says owners of affected vehicles will be contacted in writing by Toyota requesting they schedule an appointment with their preferred authorised Toyota dealer for rectification, free of charge. Alternatively, Toyota can be contacted via the Toyota Recall Assist helpline on 1800 987 366 (Monday to Friday, 08:00 - 19:00 AEST / AEDT), email recallsupport@toyota.dataresponse.com.au or through its website https://toyota.com.au/recalls.

The people have spoken, and Australians are going electric, according to the latest sales data. Three electric cars were in the top 10 sellers list for September, with the Tesla Model Y (4476 sales) third overall, the BYD Sealion 7 (2687) fifth and the Geely EX5 (2008) eighth. Australians now buy electric cars in the same number as petrol and diesel vehicles. Sales of  electric, diesel, petrol and hybrid were evenly split in September, with each accounting for about a quarter of sales. Sales of electric cars account for more than 18 per cent of total sales, a rise of more than 165 per cent, and sales of battery-powered vehicles are strengthening as the year goes along. Plug-in hybrids are booming, with sales up more than 120 per cent this year. Conventional hybrids - such as those sold by Toyota - are up more than 10 per cent for the year. Petrol sales are down more than 27 per cent this year and diesel sales have falled more than 16 per cent. Despite the fall, Australians are still gravitating towards familiar petrol and diesel vehicles. The Ford Ranger was the best seller, with 5062 sales in September. This was followed by the Toyota RAV4 (4624), the Model Y, Toyota HiLux (4455) and Chery Tiggo 4 (2059). The other constant in Australia’s new-car sales list are Chinese vehicles. Hyundai, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan and other long-term favourites had no individual vehicle in the top 10 sellers list. Relatively new names such as the Chery Tiggo 4, GWM Haval Jolion and Geely EX5 continue to climb up the charts. There are several names knocking on the door, with the MG ZS (1805), Jaecoo J5 (1754)  and Zeekr 7X (1628) selling strongly. Chinese-built vehicles are now by far the largest source of new cars to Australia, with more than 40,000 imports in September. The next best was Japan with roughly 23,000. This reversal of Australia’s buying habits is playing out with some of the smaller Japanese brands. Australia bought more BYD Sealion 7s or Chery Tiggo 4s than all Subarus or Nissans in September. Mitsubishi’s sales are plummeting, but it has the new Pajero and electric ASX VR-e arriving before the end of the year to help arrest the slide. Nissan is looking to China to help change its fortunes, with a range of vehicles sourced from its joint-venture with Dongfeng believed to be headed our way. This includes the plug-in hybrid Navara Pro ute and plug-in hybrid Terrano 4WD. 10 best-selling vehicles September, 2026 10 best-selling brands September, 2026

Toyota is already growing its popular RAV4 range as demand surges for plug-in hybrid tech. The Japanese giant has confirmed a new GXL two-wheel-drive plug-in hybrid (PHEV) grade will arrive next year to sit below the XSE 2WD in the soon to be four-tier line-up. Toyota’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations John Pappas said the company was striving to expand its low emissions vehicle options in Australia to best suit customer needs “The mid-range GXL grade has long been a popular model in the RAV4 line-up and now with the addition of the PHEV powertrain option, it adds even more customer appeal,” Pappas said. All-wheel-drive versions of the RAV4 PHEV will get upgraded off-road ability, with the addition of new drive modes. Rock/Dirt and Mud/Sand will replace the Trail/Snow mode front the fourth quarter of this year. Toyota hasn’t confirmed prices yet for the GXL 2WD grade, but it will sit below the base XSE 2WD that starts at $58,840 (before on-road costs). A XSE costs about $7000 more than the GXL in the conventional hybrid RAV4, so by that logic the new GXL PHEV could start at about $52,000. 2026 Toyota RAV4 PHEV pricing All RAV4 PHEVs use a 2.5-litre petrol engine that is paired with either one or two electric motors for front- or all-wheel drive. Front-wheel-drive versions make a combined 207kW and all-wheel-drive grades up the ante with 227kW. Fuel use is a claimed 0.7L/100km, but owners will need to be militant in keeping the circa-23kWh battery at a high level of charge to keep it operating in EV mode.  The RAV4 PHEV has a claimed electric driving range of up to 121km in the 2WD grades and 113km in the heavier and more powerful AWD versions. The GXL comes standard with: Full LED lights 18-inch alloy wheels 8-way powered driver's seat Synthetic leather instrument panel and upper door trim Leather-accented steering wheel and gearshift knob Smart entry and start Dual-zone climate control Automatic rain-sensing windscreen wipers 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster 10.5-inch touchscreen display with new-generation multimedia system Wireless phone charger 2026 Toyota RAV4 PHEV specifications

Aussie car buyers can’t get enough of the Tesla Model Y right now. Tesla’s mid-size SUV topped the sales charts for August 2026, fending off three Toyota models in the latest set of data.  Total car sales held relatively steady in August, with plenty of the usual players occupying the top spots.  Electric cars are also making an impact Down Under. Four electric-only models made featured in the top 10 last month. The Tesla Model Y surged to the top of the monthly standings once again, with 6414 sales as its new three-row Model Y L experienced sustained popularity. Combining sales of its Model 3 sedan, Tesla was the third best-selling brand in the country.  Toyota’s near 20,000 sales was the best out of any brand, and saw it occupy second, third and fourth on the standings.  Its new RAV4 continues to impress (5470), followed by the Hilux ute (4833) that now holds a healthy lead over its arch rival the Ford Ranger (2440).  Sales numbers start to drop off after the HiLux, with the Prado’s 2475 rounding out the top four.  The Ford Ranger ute experienced another decline in August 2026, falling to fifth position on the standings (2440). The Ranger has been the best-selling car in Australia for the last three consecutive years, but sales decreased in August 2026 by more than 50 per cent compared to August 2025.   The next five cars were from Chinese brands as they increased their grasp over the Australian market.  The BYD Sealion 7 mid-size SUV finished in sixth place (2213), followed by the Chery Tiggo 4 small SUV (2012), with the Geely EX5 registering 1947 examples last month.  BYD may only have had one car in the top 10, but it was the second best-selling brand in Australia in August 2026. Key Tiggo 4 rival, the GWM Haval Jolion, sold 1891 units, while the Zeekr’s 7X sold 1748 units last month.  The Isuzu D-Max took out ninth spot for the month (1708), with the Hyundai Kona finishing off the top 10 with 1688 sales. 

Toyota has finally spilled on why its new models are copping price increases around the world, with one executive suggesting the brand "can't compete" with China at the entry-point of the market, and so is instead moving into a more premium space. The news came from South Africa specifically, where executives were questioned as to why the new RAV4 Hybrid is more expensive than the model it replaces. The reason, says Toyota South Africa Motors senior public relations manager Riaan Esterhuysen, is China. "We intentionally moved it into a more premium space. It occupies or plays in the higher part of the segment now, and that is intentional," he told BizCommunity. "We can't compete with the emerging Chinese brands directly on an entry-level price point. They have changed that market. They have shaped the market or changed the shape of the market by driving customers down to a lower and mid-tier of the segment or taking used car buyers and upselling them." Toyota in Australia hasn't mentioned China in the positioning of the refreshed RAV4 range in our market, instead pointing to an increase in value, but the prices have also increased here markedly. The entry-level to the range, the GX, climbed $3730 to $45,990, while the Cruiser grade has increased by up to $5930, to $60,340. The new-to-market RAV4 PHEV sets a new price ceiling for the model, at $66,340 for the GR Sport. Whatever the reason in Australia, the price shift hasn't hurt sales, with the RAV4 the country's best-selling vehicle in July, with a total 5564 deliveries – and 40 per cent belonged to the RAV4 PHEV. It marks something of a bounce back after a comparatively slow start to the year for Toyota in Australia. But it has previously told CarsGuide that supply constraints, not competition from China and elsewhere, was to blame. A new RAV4 and a new HiLux launched at around the same time, and the brand says it has been fighting for more supply to meet demand. "Our biggest downfall this year has actually been our supply at the start, because we knew last year that we were coming into this year with a Q1 into Q2 shortfall, because we were launching the RAV4 later than we had liked," John Pappas, Toyota's Vice President, National Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, told CarsGuide. "So now the fact that we've been able to secure more production from the global allocation, particularly on hybrids and bZs and other vehicle lines, including Hilux, it's great because that enables us to shorten lead times for customers."

Australians are still buying cars in greater quantity than ever before, despite tough economic conditions. The new vehicle market recorded its strongest ever July result off the back of the same feat in June.  Toyota has had a resurgent month up against its Chinese challengers BYD and Chery, led by its new-generation RAV4 SUV.  Electric car sales are also showing no signs of slowing down in Australia, accounting for more than one-in-five cars sold.  Chinese brands are becoming a staple high up the sales charts in Australia, with many budget-focused models continuing to drive sales.  Toyota achieved 20,409 registrations for July, more than double what BYD managed. The Japanese juggernaut has taken out the top-two spots for July with its RAV4 family SUV and HiLux ute. The RAV4 has shot up the sale charts to take out pole position, with 5564 units, wrestling back against early supply issues plaguing the new version of the hugely popular family model.  Plug-in hybrid variants of the RAV4 have received some serious attention from buyers, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of the SUV's total sales. Toyota's HiLux ute was not far behind, boasting 4721 units and overtaking the Ford Ranger (4042) in July.  The brand also experienced its best month in 2026 for its Land Cruiser Prado and 300 Series 4WDs. Fully-electric cars represented more than one-fifth of all sales in July, with rising fuel prices continuing to influence buyer choices. The Tesla Model Y registered another month as the best-selling EV in Australia, with 4644 units in July between its five- (2215) and six-seater (2429) variants according to EV Council data.  BYD’s Sealion 7 mid-size SUV was another strong performer, with 2548 examples sold last month, keeping its tag as the brand’s best-selling model for another month. The Geely EX5 (2034) made another appearance in the top 10 best sellers, followed by the Zeekr 7X (1892).  The Chery Tiggo 4 (2156) small SUV has continued its run as one of the best-selling small SUVs, holding off competition from the Hyundai Kona (2096) and Mazda CX-5 (1836). BYD held onto second position in the overall sales standings for July (7857), despite a noticeable drop-off from June.  In addition to the Sealion 7, its Shark 6 plug-in hybrid ute registered another confident registration figure, with 1216 units, along with the Atto 2 small SUV (1214). Chery, Geely, GWM and MG all made the top 10 best-selling brands for the month.

Despite the hype surrounding new cars from China, the world’s largest carmaker has retained the top spot for global vehicle sales in the first half of 2026. Toyota Motor Corporation has reported sales of 5.39 million vehicles worldwide from January to the end of June this year, which puts Volkswagen in second position. The German giant posted a H1 sales score of 4.13 million units earlier this month. Despite softer demand for its products in the critical Chinese market and conflict in the Middle East driving higher oil prices and unsettling supply chains, Toyota recorded the highest first-half sales number for the seventh straight year. But a 2.9 per cent decline from the same period in 2025 marked the first Jan-Jun decrease for Toyota in two years. The Toyota group's global production output for the first half slipped just 0.3 per cent with an output of 5.51 million vehicles. Toyota exports from Japan to the Middle East fell 36 per cent (to 104,093 units), sales in China (including Hong Kong & Macau) were down 17.1 per cent to 694,670 units but the result for North America (including the USA, Canada and Mexico) was almost unchanged at 1.45 million units (+0.9 per cent). Total sales outside Japan dropped by 4.5 per cent (to 4.30 million units). Strong demand for hybrids, particularly in the US, saw global sales of ‘electrified’ Toyota  models grow 9.1 per cent to 2.71 million cars, with pure-electric vehicles up 135 per cent to a record 193,172 units. It’s a similar story in Australia with Toyota facing a plethora of new competitors but retaining a tight grip on the number one sales spot for the first half of 2026. January to June sales for Toyota of 95,141 vehicles in 2026 was down 21.4 per cent on the year prior (120,978 units), with reduced supply of the top-selling RAV4 SUV a key constraint. But earlier this month Toyota Australia announced it had secured an additional 10,000 vehicles for 2026 (mainly RAV4, HiLux and bZ4X), in the process lifting the brand’s full-year sales forecast to 220,000 units, which would put it close to the company’s 239,863 sales number in 2025.

Toyota in Australia has detailed its comparatively sluggish first-half sales results, saying its internal delivery issues, rather than competition from newcomer Chinese brands, is holding it back. Last month saw a staggeringly close – and, over the past 20 years, unheralded –brawl between Toyota and BYD for top spot on Australia's sales ladder, with the Chinese brand finishing just 243 sales short of Toyota's 19,124 deliveries. But Toyota insists it isn't feeling the rush of new Chinese brands is hurting orders, instead saying a strong second half of the year is coming as production frees up. "I don't mean that in a disrespectful way," says Toyota's Vice President, National Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations, John Pappas. "We respect all our competitors and what they do. "When you've got long lead times, at the end of the day, you need to be able to have a realistic short lead time for your customer. That's what we've been focused on. Because if we can do that, we know our loyalty is very, very high. "We respect that with our customers, we never take that for granted, but we've really been focused on trying to reduce that lead time for our customer, together with our TMC colleagues. because we know that competition's fierce. "We know that there's all these brands. We know, and we want to make sure that we can keep our customers happy by trying to reduce that lead time." Toyota has managed just 95,141 sales across the first six months of 2026, which if sustained, would see them sink below 200,000 sales for the year. But Pappas says the issue is supply, not demand, and a new pipeline of production will deliver more vehicles to customers in the second half of the year. The brand is targeting around 230,000 sales this year. "Our biggest downfall this year has actually been our supply at the start, because we knew last year that we were coming into this year with a Q1 into Q2 shortfall, because we were launching the RAV4 later than we had liked," Pappas says. "So the RAV4 is in our top two selling vehicles. We're only doing 40,000 RAV4s (compared to 52,000 in 2025) this year.  "We'd like to do more than that because we know that car's good enough and we've got customer demand over a 12-month window to do more than that amount. So therefore, we're only really getting like a nine-month runway on RAV. So we're missing out a whole quarter of new RAV4 sales.  "That's our biggest shortfall. And we knew that going into the year. So now the fact that we've been able to secure more production from the global allocation, particularly on hybrids and bZs and other vehicle lines, including Hilux, it's great because that enables us to shorten lead times for customers."

BYD wants to take its crown but Toyota isn’t going down without a fight. Toyota has flexed its muscles hot on the heels of BYD Chairman Wang Changfu stating the automaker will be the world’s largest in five years. The Chinese carmaker’s bold statement comes as it aggressively expands into international markets after Chinese sales struggle. Now Toyota has shown the jewel in its crown that BYD and other Chinese carmakers are not allowed to catch a glimpse of… the US market. Toyota has been swamped with orders for the new RAV4 Hybrid family SUV, according to US industry bible Auto News. According to reports Toyota has tapped out its Canadian and Japanese production of the RAV4 and is bringing more US production on line to feed the insatiable hunger for the RAV4 in the US. The new plant is expected to add 40,000 vehicles this year to the pipeline of new RAV4s. Wait lists in Toyota's biggest market are ballooning and nearly every RAV4 on the ground is getting gobbled up by buyers with dealers holding no stock. That’s an impressive feat considering the more than 1200 dealers nationwide, which shows it's a hit all over. This additional US production that helps free up global production is surely part of the reason Toyota Australia recently announced it had secured a greater supply of RAV4 this year, which are built in Japan. Toyota Australia said it had secured 10,000 additional vehicles, which includes the RAV4, HiLux ute and bZ4X electric SUV. The lion’s share of these will surely be RAV4s, as ute sales tail off and hybrid mid-size SUVs are all the rage. Toyota Australia’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations John Pappas said there had been strong demand for these vehicles Down Under. “This increase in supply is great news for our customers and dealers. It reflects the strong partnership we have with Toyota globally to prioritise the Australian market,” said Pappas. “Vehicles like HiLux remain essential for many Australians, while RAV4 continues to lead the SUV segment thanks to its versatility, drivability and efficiency. “We will continue working closely with our global production teams to secure additional supply where possible and ensure we are meeting the needs of Australian customers today and into the future.” The popularity of the new RAV4 shows just how hard a job BYD has in toppling the Japanese giant. BYD and other Chinese carmakers are locked out of the US market, which will make it hard to get close to the Japanese maker that sells more than one million vehicles there annually.

New car intenders are on the decline in Australia.  While Chinese brands such as BYD and Chery are on the up, many of Australia’s most popular brands are struggling.  Total sales for cars in Australia are down more than two per cent for May 2026 compared to May 2025.  This decrease grows to nearly five per cent, if sales of the Tesla's Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan are excluded. This is reflected year-to-date data, which shows a more than one per cent overall drop compared to 2025 so far.  The decrease comes after total sales declined slightly in 2025 compared to 2024, with sales already coming off a downturn in the second half of 2024.  Even dominant players in the Australian car market like Toyota have experienced a near 25 per cent drop this year compared to 2025 numbers. This has been partly driven by a delay on supply for the new-generation RAV4 SUV, though.  Economic factors are key drivers for buyer decline, including the ever-increasing costs of buying a new car, coupled with higher fuel prices.  Potential buyers also need to satisfy cost of living pressures before thinking about buying a new car.  The impacts of these economic conditions increases the possibility of the Australian market continuing to stagnate. Data provided from Roy Morgan last month showed buying intention to purchase a new car in the next four years has decreased by four per cent, and overall intention has dropped to 47 per cent.  “The latest data on car buying intention reflects Australians believe now is not a good time to make big purchase decisions in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis,” Roy Morgan Chief Executive Officer Michele Levine said. The Kia Picanto, Australia’s cheapest new car on sale, remains the only car priced from less than $20,000.  The exponential growth of Chinese brands in Australia has been driven by the comparative cheapness to legacy brand alternatives.  Cars like the Chery Tiggo 4 and Jaecoo J5 EV small SUVs find themselves in the top 10 best sellers and have a price tag much lower than many of its legacy competition.