Toyota Rav4 climbs to the top of the sales chart for the first month since going on sale in Australia. But sales across the board continue to sink.
Toyota’s Rav4 topped the sales chart last month, the first time the SUV has ever taken the number one spot in Australia since it first went on sale in 1994.
It took away the win from the usual sales chiefs Toyota Hilux and Ford Ranger, two utes that normally tussle for the top spot – the Hilux having more success this year than Ranger. But the ute duo instead fell into second and third places, with Ford’s Ranger out-doing the Hilux for July.
RAV4’s success comes as overall sales in the car market fell in July year-on-year by 12.8 per cent, with Victoria hardest hit of all states, sales down 27.8 per cent due, most likely, to stricter COVID-19 related closures and restrictions.
Success for the RAV4 comes in part due to the fulfillment of orders taken almost 12 months ago, when the stock was slim and customers had to wait until after June 2020 for delivery. This saw a spike in RAV4 orders as ute stock went the opposite direction, following a sales spike in June that shrunk stockpiles.
Overall, July represents a stronger month this year, though Australian car sales continue to slide over a two year period. With COVID-19 restrictions now entering Stage 4 in Victoria and further restrictions likely for other states, it could be quite some time until things pick back up.
Top selling manufacturers July 2020
| Toyota | 15,508 |
| Mazda | 7806 |
| Mitsubishi | 4684 |
| Hyundai | 4634 |
| Kia | 4625 |
| Ford | 4573 |
| Volkswagen | 3710 |
| Nissan | 2906 |
| Subaru | 2864 |
| Mercedes-Benz | 2556 |
Top selling models July 2020
| Toyota Rav4 | 4309 |
| Ford Ranger | 3104 |
| Toyota HiLux | 2947 |
| Toyota Corolla | 2192 |
| Hyundai i30 | 1745 |
| Mazda CX-5 | 1727 |
| Mitsubishi Triton | 1593 |
| Mazda CX-3 | 1355 |
| Toyota Camry | 1281 |
| Mazda3 | 1224 |
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RAV4 first sold in Australia in 1994.
Indeed, it certainly was ’94.
I wonder how much of that sales success was due to their “self charging” hybrids.
On board generator powered by the vehicle’s engine to energise a small battery pack and electric motor drive makes engineering sense, far more than completely all electric external charger vehicles for Australian conditions, suburban driving maybe the exception.
But I wonder if Hybrid is a real improvement over modern internal combustion engine conventional technology. Maybe a town and country comparison road test would be useful?
I am aware that burning fossil fuel in an ICEV or Hybrid is more fuel efficient than using electricity grid baseload/peak energy to recharge an EV, burning coal or gas in a power station to provide steam to power a steam turbine driven generator (huge generator units). And over 80 per cent of our electricity comes from coal or gas fired power stations, about up to intermittently 10 per cent from hydro power stations and the balance wind, solar and diesel or gas fuelled back up generators.