Toyota’s hybrids crushed it last year. While the company has been slow to launch compelling electric cars, its hybrid dominance continues to expand. Sales of hybrid models grew 21.1% across the globe last year, according to the company’s year-end sales report.
We already knew that Toyota hybrids had a good year in America. The company now offers hybrid versions of all of the important models it sells (Sorry Toyota GR 86, Supra and Lexus IS, but your sales barely register). The Camry, Land Cruiser, Sienna, Venza and Sequoia are only available as hybrids, and we expect the best-selling RAV4 to go the same direction when it’s redesigned.
The new Land Cruiser is available exclusively as a hybrid. Same for the Camry, Sienna, Venza and Sequoia.
The company’s dominance makes sense. It popularized the hybrid with the launch of the Prius over 20 years ago, and has continued to refine its technology. Toyota hybrids are reliable, efficient and affordable, so it’s a win worth celebrating.
It’s also one I feel compelled to recognize, because we at InsideEVs have been tough on Toyota. That’s justifiable, I think. The company has more experience with electrification than anyone else, and has thus far failed to convert that into success in the EV era. Its sole Toyota-branded EV offering in the U.S., the bZ4x, feels half-assed. I wasn’t impressed with the Lexus version, either. And while Toyota swears more and better EVs are coming eventually, other competitors have those on sale right now.
But its hybrids are great options for those who are not ready or unwilling to take the electric plunge. It’s a sad fact that many people don’t have reliable charging access, and the cost barrier to EVs remains too high. Hybrids serve as a natural, people-pleasing middle step. They may not be as clean as full EVs, but they’re a big improvement over traditional ICE vehicles. I especially appreciate their reliability, as Toyota’s consistent refinement has produced durable powertrains bound to last longer than you’d keep a car for. I can’t count how many times I’ve been in a Prius taxi with over 250,000 miles, and I firmly believe that reliability is key to sustainability. A sustainable society would not produce disposable objects.
Of course, that focus on reliability leads Toyota to often be a late adopter of new tech. The company is still getting the hang of turbocharged engines, a decade after they went mainstream. This strategy doesn’t always pay off—despite being ten years behind the curve on turbocharging, for instance, Toyota has still had massive issues with the Tundra’s new turbo V-6. But the bZ4x has so far been mostly free of the reliability issues we’ve seen in other first-draft EVs. So maybe they’re onto something.
Either way, it’s clear that Toyota’s EVs are not yet an important part of its portfolio. Worldwide, the company sold just 139,832 EVs. That’s a small number relative to Ford, Hyundai, General Motors, Tesla or the Volkswagen group, but it’s a 34.5% gain over last year. That means the EV market is growing faster than the hybrid market even for Toyota, though from a much, much lower baseline. Toyota moved 4.14 million hybrids last year. EVs have a lot of catching up to do.
As a further baby step, plug-in hybrids are doing well too. Toyota sold 153,829 PHEVs globally last year, up 23.4% year over year. I’d note, too, that this appears to be supply-limited. RAV4 Primes remain highly in-demand and often transact for over MSRP. That’s in comparison to the bZ4x, which required a lot of incentives to sell this year. So I’m not sure if EVs will surpass PHEVs on Toyota’s global sales chart next year; EVs have the momentum, but PHEVs have been constrained more on the manufacturing side.
The Rav4 Prime is a great option, if you can find one on a dealer lot.
Either way, the company is showing solid growth across its electrified offerings. The one categorical exception is its hydrogen fuel-cell offerings. FCEV sales fell 55.8% last year worldwide That’s from a pretty low starting point: 4,023 cars in 2023, now down to 1,778 sales this year. Yowch.
Still, there’s a lot of optimism in this report. The world’s fleet is electrifying. Though it may happen more slowly than we hoped, that’s almost always true with human progress. Things may not happen as quickly as we want them to, but they move generally in the right direction.
So if a hybrid is what it takes to wean you off gas, do it. By the time you buy your next car, the EV offerings will be even better.
Contact the author: Mack.Hogan@insideevs.com.
