Fluke? Electrified RAV4 Outsells Normal RAV4

Please don’t send us emails complaining about the use of the word “normal” in a headline. Yes, the Toyota RAV4 Hybrid is still a RAV4. Yes, it has every right to exist, and it makes its parents proud, each and every day.

Especially lately, given that the electrified version of the country’s top-selling compact crossover outsold its conventional sibling in June. Not that the hybrid RAV4 was a sales slug to begin with.

As Tim Cain told you late last year, the RAV4 Hybrid has pretty much replaced the once dominant Prius as the green car du jour in the Toyota lineup. And for whatever reason, June saw the RAV4 Hybrid beat out the gas-only RAV4 by nine units last month, Automotive News reports. There’s a first time for everything.

The 17,051 RAV4 Hybrids sold in June is a far cry from June 2019’s 9,013 units, or even the roughly 10,000 sold in December. But it seems more than likely that circumstance tilted the scales in the hybrid’s favor on a temporary basis.

As we noted last week, inventory data showed Toyota with the thinnest stock of all automakers at the end of June. According to Cox Automotive figures, Toyota’s average 30 days’ supply of vehicles was the least bloated in the industry, vastly undercutting the overall average of 70 days. Take a stable of mostly hot-selling vehicles, add a two-month U.S. production shutdown, then a not-immediate ramp-up, and try to come up with another result. It’s quite possible the dealer cupboard was close to bare in June, tamping down conventional RAV4 sales like an afternoon rain shower on a grass fire.

The same result could crop up in July.

Indeed, AN reports that some dealers marked down RAV4 Hybrids in June to compensate for their lack of of gas-only models. That said, the RAV4 Hybrid’s enviable fuel economy and sensible pricing ladder has earned the variant a consistent sales following, meaning dealers can be assured of steady volume regardless of which model they stock their lots with. Moving up to a hybrid variant in the absence of a purely internal combustion model isn’t a confusing or expensive step for an open-minded customer.

While overall sales are down across the industry, Toyota hybrids saw an uptick of 14 percent over the first half of the year, with more than half of the brand’s electrified vehicles sold being RAV4s. The plug-in hybrid RAV4 Prime arrives this summer to add further choice for green shoppers, though Car and Driver noted recently that battery supply issues could see this year’s American take of the PHEV model fall short of initial expectations.

It could be a while before the RAV4 Prime adds meaningful volume to Toyota’s U.S. sales sheet, though full production of the conventional model and continued production of the regular hybrid should eventually brighten the sale picture.

[Image: Toyota]