Drive.com.au
Australia’s biggest-selling car brand is banking on a flood of fresh stock to deliver a record final quarter after supply headaches and model changeovers dragged sales backwards.
Toyota is preparing for a massive end-of-year sales charge, targeting more than 220,000 new vehicle deliveries across Australia in 2026 despite being almost 16 per cent down for the year.
The Japanese automotive giant believes an influx of stock over the next three months could propel it to its biggest fourth quarter on record, with strong customer demand still sitting behind models including the HiLux and RAV4.
Toyota sales are down 15.9 per cent so far this year, even as the wider Australian new-car market has grown by about two per cent.
The downturn has come during changeovers to new generations of two of Toyota’s biggest sellers, the HiLux and RAV4, while the company has also faced continuing logistical and supply pressures.
At its current sales rate, Toyota would finish 2026 with about 204,000 deliveries.
But Toyota Australia sales and marketing boss John Pappas said the company expected to clear 220,000 by December 31, with its order books remaining strong.
“Our order bank is still very, very healthy, and our fresh order intake is still going very, very strong,” Mr Pappas said.
“It’s not really an issue of demand; it’s actually an issue of … logistics and getting the cars shipment-wise.”
Toyota had previously set its sights on 230,000 vehicles for 2026, which would put it within striking distance of its Australian record of 241,296 sales set in 2024.
Reaching even the revised 220,000 target will require a significant acceleration.
Toyota needs to deliver more than 22,000 vehicles a month for the remainder of the year to reach that mark and eclipse its previous fourth-quarter record of 66,179 vehicles, set in 2020.
Hitting the original 230,000 target would require monthly sales of more than 25,600 vehicles.
Mr Pappas remains confident the stock is coming.
“The last quarter for us will be a record,” he said.
“The last time we did this type of volume in the last quarter was in 2020, and we’ll do more than what we did then.”
Toyota’s monthly sales have headed in the opposite direction recently, falling from 20,409 vehicles in July to 17,682 in September.
Mr Pappas said that slowdown had been anticipated as the company navigated the HiLux and RAV4 changeovers.
“We knew it was going to be a ramp-up, which is not ideal because it just puts pressure on the whole supply chain,” he said.
