Are electric cars reaching saturation? Toyota RAV4 drove hybrid sales milestone in April as Tesla's sales share faltered

In April, Electric car sales were down about 41 per cent compared to March while hybrid deliveries were historically high which begs the question: have EVs reached market saturation? 

Not quite. April’s drop in electric car sales can be attributed to a slow month for the Tesla Model Y following massive March deliveries. 

The increase in hybrid sales, meanwhile, is largely down to Toyota which delivered 1625 more petrol-electric models in April as the Japanese giant churned through its huge order backlog.

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More than half of Toyota’s 10,972 hybrid sales came from petrol-electric RAV4s (5504). The medium SUV celebrated its biggest ever sales month, knocking HiLux and Ranger off their perches. Of the RAV4s sold in April, 94 per cent were hybrid.  

If ‘Toyota Hybrid’ were a brand in itself, it would have outsold all other new car brands including Ford, Kia, Mazda and even non-hybrid Toyota in the month of April. 

“While it would be easy to assume this result is simply driven by historic demand, it is not the full picture”, said Toyota Vice President Sales, Marketing and Franchise Operations Sean Hanley.

“Customer orders in April remained high, demonstrating a growing number of Australians are seeking fuel-efficient hybrids that are practical, capable and affordable”, he said, adding that wait times for hybrid variants of RAV4, Corolla and C-HR are expected to drop back to three-four months by June. 

The family car of choice in Aus (Image: Sam Rawlings)

It wasn’t just Toyota, of course, with other brands shifting 5459 petrol-electric cars cumulatively, an improvement of 906 compared to March. New variants and models from GWM and Haval delivered 19 per cent of that chunk with Nissan, Honda, Kia and Hyundai also chipping in. 

As for electric cars, the drop from March’s 10,464 high to April’s 6194 can be explained by slower Tesla Model Y deliveries. The popular mid-size SUV found 1166 homes compared to 4379 in March when it was Australia’s third most-popular vehicle.

Compared to the Toyota’s bZ4X, Tesla did well in April. The big T delivered a paltry 74 bZ4X electric medium SUVs last month. 

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen erratic delivery numbers from Tesla. Early on when the brand was reporting sales there would be boom and bust months that lined up when boats arrived, often impacted by quarantine snags. 

Toyota's EV isn't as popular as Tesla's.

CarsGuide contacted Tesla for comment on last month’s figures but has yet to hear back from the manufacturer’s local arm. 

The Australian market is still in its electric car growth phase, though you don’t have to look far to see what might be in store. The United States is facing troubles with carmakers producing more EVs than there’s demand for, while Europe and the UK are also seeing a plateau in electric car adoption. 

In China, where most electric cars are produced for Australian consumption, fierce price wars are seemingly the only way to drive sales. 

Tesla’s latest round of price cuts in Australia ought to push sales through the year, yet globally the company’s eye is – perhaps tellingly – shifting away from vehicle production to other endeavours, such as robots and self-driving taxis where boss Elon Musk sees growth. 

Tesla's sales vary monthly. (Image: Richard Berry)

Despite April’s slump, the market for electric cars remains up by 32.3 per cent year-on-year. That said, deliveries of new diesels (13.8 per cent), hybrids (138.2 per cent) and plug-in hybrids are also up for 2024 in what is shaping up to be a record sales year.