Toyota RAV4 2024 News

The Japanese government has ordered Toyota to make “drastic reforms” after discovering seven more vehicles are non-compliant with certification procedures. 

The next-gen Toyota RAV4 could follow in the Camry’s footsteps with mild updates rather than an all-new iteration to modernise the popular model that is due in 2025. 

Reports suggest Toyota will bring downsized turbo petrol engines into the Harrier and Corolla specifically, but what of the popular RAV4 that's also up for replacement?

Australia’s favourite car brand has taken a shot at electric car-only brands such as Tesla and Polestar.Toyota Australia’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations intimated car makers that only sell EVs are in for a tough time.“I’m not sure I’d want to be a single EV-only manufacturer right now,” said Hanley.“People are now moving back to hybrid and particularly plug-in hybrid. Interesting.”Sales of hybrid cars such as the Toyota RAV4 and Hyundai Kona are up more than 113 per cent through the first six months of this year.Toyota announced last week it had delivered more than 100,000 hybrids in Australia the past financial year. The RAV4 led the charge with 38,632 sales for in the past 12 months, followed by the Corolla (20,375), Camry (16,872), Corolla Cross (7,876), Kluger (7,311) and Yaris Cross (6,077).Plug-in hybrids are in a similar purple patch with sales up by about 130 per cent this year.Electric cars sales have plateaued after a very strong 2023 with sales up 16.5 per cent this year. EV sales were up more than 160 per cent last year.Toyota has always maintained battery electric cars are just part of the future mix of vehicles and they are a long way from becoming the default choice of buyers.“Toyota's always been about the long term: we don't plan for five years, we plan for 20 to 30 years. And that's what you're seeing right now in play is that multi pathways strategy that we've been talking about for a long time,” said Hanley.Toyota just launched its first electric car - the bZ4X - in Australia earlier this year with mixed results. It has only sold 555 examples since February compared to Tesla shifting 23,116 examples of its Model Y and Model 3 in the same time.Hanley said the company wouldn't follow Tesla and slash the price of its EV.Despite their increasing popularity Toyota Australia still does not sell any plug-in hybrids locally despite offering plug-in hybrid versions of the Prius, C-HR and RAV4 overseas.Hanley promised a wide variety of vehicles were on the agenda for Toyota in Australia.“100 per cent you can expect hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles and I dare say some time in the future even synthetic fuel vehicles, hydrogen conversion vehicles of conventional ICE engines are also something we are considering,” he said.Toyota has long been a champion of hydrogen power and it currently has a fleet of Mirai Fuel Cell vehicles trialling in Australia.Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles convert hydrogen to electricity that is stored in a battery, which then powers an electric motor. The only tailpipe emissions is water.Hanley previously told CarsGuide hydrogen fuel cell vehicles won’t be popular for the next three to five years but will become more important in the future. Refuelling infrastructure is one of the biggest problems with only a handful of outlets nationwide.He did say Toyota Australia will sell a hydrogen fuel cell car in the next two years, but only in areas where there is the infrastructure to support it which, reading between the lines, means Canberra.

In announcing it had sold more than 100,000 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) last financial year, Toyota Australia also confirmed the waiting time for one of the country’s most in-demand new cars has come down substantially.

Following preliminary sales results announced in February, JATO dynamics has confirmed that the Tesla Model Y was the world’s best selling car in 2023. This historic statistic marks the first time an electric car has been the most popular vehicle globally. It achieved 1,223,000 sales for a huge 64 per cent improvement on 2022 to beat previous winners such as the Toyota RAV4 (1,075,000) and Honda CR-V (846,000).Although Model Y’s lead is perhaps not surprising to Oceanic, US or European readers, JATO dynamics analyst Felipe Munoz points out the astounding achievement given the Model Y’s lower demand in emerging markets. The strength of Japanese makers in general, and the RAV4 and CR-V in particular, is that they are not only popular in markets like the United States, Australia and Europe but are offered in lower cost guises that can succeed in growth markets including India (4.13 million sales), Brazil (2.12 million) and Iran (1.43 million).Following the CR-V came the Toyota Corolla sedan (803,000), Corolla Cross small SUV (715,000) and Camry sedan (650,000).The world’s most popular pick-up truck was the Ford F-150 (623,000) closely followed by the Toyota HiLux (605,000). In ninth spot was the Nissan Sentra (534,000) with the Tesla Model 3 (508,000) sneaking into the top 10. Australia’s top 10 featured the Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max all ahead of the fourth-place Toyota RAV4. The Model Y took sixth spot locally trailing another Chinese-made SUV, the MG ZS. There was not a single passenger car in our top-10 – all were either SUVs or light commercial vehicles. It’s also worth noting our new-car market is forecast around 1.2 million units this year – less than the Model Y on its own globally.But Tesla may not remain at the top of the tree this year, and it will certainly become more challenging come 2025. Its Model 3 and Model Y are both due a facelift if they are to stay competitive in mature markets. Additionally, there is so much growth coming from what Jato has defined as emerging markets that the Model Y and Model 3 are not well-placed to capture. In total, these countries accounted for 22 per cent of new vehicle sales last year. The other looming threat for Tesla is China. For the first time in 2023, Chinese brands sold more cars than United States brands. The highest selling model was the BYD Qin sedan in 12th followed by the Song Plus – known as the Sealion 6 here – in 19th spot. Japan remained at the top of the tree, with 29.1 per cent of all new vehicle sales coming from the country’s marques and European brands accounting for 24.9 per cent. Top 10 best selling vehicles in the world  

Toyota’s entire passenger range is going hybrid only from today.As first revealed by CarsGuide earlier this week, the Corolla Cross SUV will ditch its petrol engine variants and go hybrid only.Now Toyota has confirmed the RAV4 and Kluger SUVs and Corolla sedan will follow suit and only be available to order in hybrid form from today. Toyota has already announced its Yaris, Corolla hatch, Yaris Cross and C-HR are going hybrid only.Only the brand’s commercial vehicles and rugged 4WDs will be available with conventional petrol or diesel powertrains.Toyota Australia’s Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Dealer Operations Sean Hanley said the adoption of hybrid vehicles in Australia made this decision possible.“This is not a result of the impending New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES). These are trends that are in the market now. In fact, the new mandated standard confirms the foresight of Toyota’s strategy,” said Hanley.“We continue and we will do even more in coming years to innovate across a diverse range of drivetrains, which is the essence of Toyota’s multi pathway approach.“So in that sense, you could say Toyota has been embracing the spirit of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard for an extended period with our hybrids, plus out move now into BEVs and our comprehensive future model plans that remain under wraps for now. We remain committed to allowing customers to choose the low carbon or no carbon drivetrain that best suits their circumstances.”The Federal Government’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) has passed through both houses of parliament and will come into effect next year.This new standard will penalise carmakers for every car they sell that produces more CO2 than a set level. These levels will get harder to meet every year.There are few petrol-engined cars that will escape punishment but hybrids will slip under the mandated levels for a few years at least.In May, hybrid sales made up 48.9 per cent of the Toyota's total volume. More than 46 per cent of the brand's total sales for the first five months of this year have been hybrids.The top-selling RAV4 was more than 95 per cent hybrid the past month, demand for the Camry hybrid was up more than 250 per cent and Corolla Cross Hybrid sales have more than doubled this year.Petrol sales still make up about 20 per cent of Kluger SUV volume, though.The deletion of the petrol options for the Corolla Cross, RAV4 and Kluger means it’ll be more expensive to get into one of these models, too.Hybrid power costs $2500 more in the Corolla Cross and RAV4 and a whopping $6500 extra in the seven-seat Kluger. That big jump is due to Kluger hybrid variants only coming with all-wheel drive and not the cheaper two-wheel drive layout available in the petrol-only versions.That means the new entry point to Corolla Cross range is $36,480 (before on-road costs), $42,260 for the RAV4 and $60,920 for the Kluger.Toyota has no plans to add a cheaper two-wheel drive version of the Kluger hybrid, according to Hanley.The Japanese brand will honour all existing petrol orders, with those cars to be delivered over the next few months. Kluger petrol deliveries will stretch into next year, though.

The Tesla Model Y has achieved the unthinkable in March, outselling the Toyota HiLux to land as Australia's best-performing electric vehicle.

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