Toyota is expecting more than half of all the Yaris Cross SUVs it sells to be hybrid.
Australia’s biggest-selling car brand says its smallest SUV will follow in the footsteps of the mid-sized RAV4, with 60 per cent of all initial sales expected to be hybrid.
“We think the hybrid mix will be over 50 per cent, in truth I think it will be close to 60 per cent in the initial launch period,” Toyota Australia vice president of sales and marketing, Sean Hanley, today told media.
“I think it will plateau out to around half pretty consistently across the 12 months of 2021.”
Toyota has secured supply to meet that demand, telling media it doesn’t anticipate a waiting list for the Yaris Cross based on those forecasts.
“We have supply to meet that demand. Of course, if it went to 80 or 90 per cent, then we would have to seek further supply from the parent company,” Mr Hanley said.
“TMC [Toyota Motor Company] is very supportive in every way of our hybrid sales, and we of course always endeavour to get more cars to meet the demand.”
Toyota will offer two hybrid powertrains in the Yaris Cross: a front-wheel drive option at a $2000 premium over the base petrol, and an all-wheel drive option with a motor on the rear axle at a $5000 premium over the petrol.
The front-wheel drive hybrid has a claimed combined fuel economy figure of 3.8L/100km while the all-wheel drive has a claim of 4.0L/100km.
Toyota’s hybrid sales have grown dramatically in the last two years. To date in 2020 it has sold 37,510 hybrids, a 27.1 per cent slice of its overall sales pie.
It has already overtaken its previous record of 27,846 hybrid sales (13.5 per cent) set in 2019.
Having debuted its hybrid technology in the Prius locally, Toyota Australia now offers electrified versions of the Yaris and Yaris Cross, Corolla, C-HR, RAV4, and Camry. It will next year have a hybrid version of the seven-seat Kluger SUV.
