Toyota predicts strong 2023, despite Q1 share drop

Toyota remains the best-selling brand in Australia, but its market share has taken a big hit in 2023 as supply struggles continue to bite.

To date in 2023 it’s sold 40,918 cars in Australia, representing a 15.2 per cent share of the market. That’s down on the 22.1 per cent share it held at the same point in 2022.

The Supra sports coupe, LandCruiser wagon, and Kluger family SUV are the only Toyota models to grow their sales year-to-date, with the Camry (-60.9 per cent), RAV4 (-44.2 per cent), Prado (-57.5 per cent) and C-HR (-46.5 per cent) the biggest losers.

UPDATE, 08/04/2023 10:00am – The story has been updated with comment from Sean Hanley. The headlinehas been adjusted to “Toyota predicts strong 2023, despite Q1 share drop”.

As has been the case for the past two years, supply shortages are holding Toyota back.

According to CarExpert data, the brand has the longest waits for a new car of any in Australia at 230 days, and the four cars with the longest wait in the country wear a Toyota badge.

Waits for the most popular hybrid RAV4 variants stretch to around two years, while the cult classic LandCruiser 70 is currently off sale due to its order backlog.

“The March results confirm our earlier advice that the first quarter would be challenging for deliveries. We expect some improvement in supply during the second quarter and a further pick-up during the second half of the year,” said Toyota Australia vice president for sales and marketing, Sean Hanley.

“We continue to work hard with our global production teams and our local dealers to ensure we receive and deliver as many cars as possible, as quickly as possible. Demand for Toyota vehicles remains strong and our order bank is very healthy.

“For the full year, we are expecting to deliver more than 200,000 vehicles for the 19th time in the past 20 years.”

It’s not the only brand struggling to get cars into the country. Cars contaminated with stink bugs, huge backlogs at ports, and production struggles mean new cars are still harder to come by across the board.

With Toyota’s market share slipping, we’ve seen growth from a number of brands.

Ford’s market share is up from 5.1 to 7.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2023, led by strong sales from the Ranger ute, while GWM has a 3.0 per cent slice of the pie instead of the 1.1 per cent it owned this time in 2022.

Kia and MG have also seen growth in their market share.