- Demand for Toyota’s hybrids is practically insatiable right now.
- Some markets are waiting nearly nine months for vehicles.
- The delay appears to be a result of demand that tripled in the last five years, leaving suppliers unable to keep up.
If you’ve tried to get your hands on a new hybrid Toyota lately, you’ve probably realized that it’s easier to schedule a private audience with the Pope than land a fresh Prius. It turns out that the Japanese automaker has found that even if the world isn’t ready for EVs, it’s definitely ready for hybrids—so much so that Toyota is having a hard time keeping its hybrid cars (and parts) in stock all over the globe.
According to a new report from Reuters, the demand for Toyota’s hybrids is absolutely haywire right now. The result? Long wait times for just about anyone looking to buy a new plug-in or traditional hybrid, plus a line at the parts counter since suppliers are also struggling to keep up.
Photo by: Toyota
The situation as a whole proving to be a test of patience on a global scale. Buyers in India are facing a wait of between two and nine months for some hybrid models. Toyota’s home turf of Japan has a wait of up to five months, while Europeans have to wait more than two months. The U.S. isn’t free from the pain either, especially on the West Coast where buyers are finding dealer lots with no hybrids in sight.
Toyota’s hybrid-frenzy is nothing new. Folks have been complaining about how difficult it has been to get a Toyota hybrid for months. Hell, months after the refreshed Prius debuted, my wife and I went car shopping and couldn’t even get a dealer to show us one because they were all pre-sold before they hit the lot. But it’s not Covid-era plant closures that are causing the problem anymore—so what exactly is the hold up?
Well, it’s the whole hybrid thing. In the last five years, global sales of hybrid vehicles (including plug-ins) have tripled—from 5.7 million to 16.1 million units annually. That’s a gold mine for manufacturers like Toyota who make a killing from these hybrids, but also an extreme stress test to feed an insatiable customer base.
That demand increase has caused shortages of some key components necessary for hybrids. For example, Aisin—which supplies Toyota with components for its hybrid drivetrains—has run into a shortage of high-grade magnets. That means a bottleneck in rotors and stators used in its electric motors. Then there’s Denso, Toyota’s largest parts supplier. Downstream tier-2 and tier-3 suppliers have hit bottlenecks, slowing Denso’s output of inverters.
Here’s the kicker: Because the majority of these components are made or assembled in Japan before being shipped out to Toyota’s other global factories, a small hiccup in Nagoya means waves of delays reaching Detroit, New Delhi and beyond.
Rest assured that Toyota isn’t just sitting by the sidelines. The automaker is considering finding additional suppliers or, in some cases (according to Reuters), looking into domestically manufacturing certain components in backlogged regions like India. The brand has also set some precursory measures in place in other regions as part of its advancement in electrification. And while the billions spent there might help with some bottlenecks like battery production, supplier limitations can still hold the company back.
Toyota has been ragged on for its “multi-pathway” approach before—by not going all-in on electrification, the OEM showed that it wasn’t quite ready to take the plunge into large-scale EV production. It didn’t necessarily mean cold feet, though, just that Toyota knew its sales needed to fit a wider audience. If anything, this latest logistical nightmare just proves Toyota’s point: Customers want hybrids, not just pure EVs. Now it just has to build enough of them.
