Toyota Australia said it had secured "a substantial increase" in production of the popular RAV4 Hybrid SUV from the factory in Japan with additional vehicles set to arrive down under during the second half of 2020.
The extra supply should see 8,000 more units reaching dealers from July – on top of previously planned supply – with specific volume being confirmed month by month.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The company is also shipping in additional Camry Hybrid units.
Toyota Australia sales and marketing chief Sean Hanley said the significant injection of additional hybrids had been negotiated to substantially reduce wait times for local customers.
"Demand for hybrids, particularly RAV4, has skyrocketed over the past year due to their combination of performance and economy, but that has unfortunately meant some customers have faced extended delays in receiving their vehicles," he said.
"We appreciate the support of our parent company in helping us to address this issue by agreeing to provide us with more hybrids."
The current RAV4 was launched in Australia in May 2019 and is now Australia's best-selling SUV.
Toyota's electrified hybrids represent almost one-quarter of the brand's sales so far this year, led by RAV4.
The extra orders should provide some encouragement for Toyota Japan product planners who are looking at a gloomy May as current low demand is expected to force the automaker to cut next month's vehicle production in Japan by about half from the level expected at the end of March, across all 18 assembly plants in Japan.
"The lack of prospects for recovery in the North American market is a major reason behind the domestic production cut," a Toyota source told Nikkei.
With more production cuts expected later, Toyota would likely fall short of annual domestic output of 3m vehicles, described as the minimum for maintaining manufacturing capabilities and jobs.
Some plants will be reduced to a single shift and others shut down entirely.
