Toyota expects one in three RAV4s sold in Australia will be PHEVs

Toyota Australia is forecasting strong sales for its incoming RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV), with the brand's local VP for marketing and sales saying nearly one in three RAV4 sales will be plug-in.

Speaking with CarExpert at the launch of the new-generation 2026 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, vice president for sales and marketing at Toyota Australia, John Pappas, said the Japanese brand reckons 30 per cent of the first year of sales will be PHEV models.

"We're expecting that the plug-in hybrid in the first sort of 12 months of full run rate to be around 30 per cent of the order intake, or thereabouts," Mr Pappas said.

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For reference, Mr Pappas also confirmed at the event that the company's dealer network had taken more than 10,000 pre-orders for the new RAV4 before it went to wholesale, and anticipates the SUV nameplate to return over 40,000 registrations for the 2026 calendar year (including run-out examples of the old one).

Given just 3842 RAV4s have been delivered in Australia to the end of March as Toyota phases out the old generation, at least 35,000+ new-generation RAV4s are due to hit Australian driveaways for the remainder of the year, and Mr Pappas's projections indicate around 10,000 of those could be PHEVs, using very rough maths.

Such volume would catapult Toyota onto the PHEV sales podium based on last year's figures, with only the BYD Shark 6 PHEV ute eclipsing 10,000 registrations for the 2025 calendar year, with the BYD Sealion 6 SUV coming in second with 9055 registrations.

Toyota would also be leapfrogging PHEV pioneer Mitsubishi and its Outlander PHEV – a direct rival for the RAV4 PHEV – which in 2025 notched 4110 registrations for third place outright.

The RAV4 PHEV range won't be arriving for another couple of months, but it's already on sale across three variants with prices starting from $58,840 before on-road costs.

Using the same 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the RAV4 Hybrid at its core, the RAV4 PHEV adds more powerful electric motors and a larger battery pack for improved performance and usable EV driving range.

Making 227kW in AWD guise, the RAV4 PHEV is the most powerful production RAV4 model ever, with its 22.7kWh lithium-ion battery good for a WLTP-certified EV driving range of around 100km per charge.

While it's the first RAV4 PHEV in Australia, the previous-generation RAV4 Prime (or PHEV) was available in a number of overseas markets, with an older version of the same drivetrain.

Stay tuned to CarExpert for our Australian launch drive review of the new 2026 Toyota RAV4 this Wednesday, 22 April at 17:00 AEST

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