Here's how many hybrids Toyota sold in South Africa in 2023

Just how well received are Toyota’s hybrids in South Africa? Well, let’s take a closer look at local sales of the Japanese firm’s dual-powered models in 2023 to find out…

Toyota South Africa Motors says sales of its hybrids increased 22% year on year in 2023. According to the Japanese firm’s local division, registrations of its dual-powered derivatives improved from 3 320 units in 2022 to 4 054 units last year.

The company shared the intriguing sales figures at its recent State of the Motor Industry (SOMI) 2024 event at Kyalami in Gauteng. A slide shown during the presentation indicated that the Corolla Cross Hybrid – Mzansi’s most affordable hybrid, currently starting from R486 100 in XS guise – accounted for the bulk of these sales.

*More than half of RAV4 sales in SA last year were hybrid derivatives.*

Indeed, with 3 059 registrations, the Corolla Cross Hybrid represented more than 75% of the Toyota brand’s total hybrid sales in 2023. As an aside, since the Corolla Cross nameplate finished the year on 22 592 units (enough for it to take 2nd place on the list of SA’s best-selling passenger cars), we can calculate that hybrid derivatives accounted for 13.5% of the crossover’s final tally.

Despite seemingly grappling with supply constraints, the RAV4 Hybrid was next for Toyota South Africa Motors, finishing 2023 on 590 units (or, rather fascinatingly, a considerable 53.6% of total RAV4 sales). Then came the Corolla Hatch Hybrid (204 units or 54.3% of all Corolla hatchback registrations), followed by the Corolla Sedan Hybrid (180 units or 31.2% of all Corolla Sedan sales).

*Toyota also offers dual-powered versions of the Corolla hatch and sedan.*

The Crown Crossover Hybrid – which Toyota has not yet formally launched in South Africa – and the since-discontinued Prius made up the numbers with 13 units and 8 units, respectively. For the record, our dataset (based on Naamsa figures) suggests 7 units of the Prius were registered locally last year. It’s also important to note that the above statistics don’t include hybrid sales from the Lexus stable (a whopping 42.5% of the luxury brand’s registrations came in the form of hybrids last year).

As a reminder, Toyota was South Africa’s best-selling automaker in 2023, growing its tally by 8.0% year on year to a hefty 142 612 units (including Lexus and Hino sales). Having now led Mzansi’s new-vehicle market for 44 years on the trot, the Japanese giant’s market share surged to 26.8% (yes, that’s more than 1 in 4 vehicles sold), the highest on record.