The head of Toyota New Zealand says the brand’s shift more than a year ago to an agency distribution model has been rewarded with increased sales in spite of the current constricted supply chain.
“A year ago, it would have been unprecedented that New Zealand customers were prepared to wait for their vehicle, Toyota New Zealand chief executive Neeraj Lala says.
“We are now seeing the benefits of our business shift to an agency model with the transparent driveaway price, customers know what they are going to pay when ordering their vehicle,” he says.
As part of Toyota’s agency model, customers also have a capped price servicing rate under the Toyota Care Service Advantage.
“We have seen a 90% ‘Service Advantage’ utilisation for first year ownership, which shows our customers are enjoying the value of the capped pricing servicing,” Lala says.
Toyota New Zealand’s hybrid sales continue to be strong, with the RAV4 and Corolla taking second and third place in the top 10 vehicles for October.
Overall new Toyota hybrid vehicle sales were at 42% for October 2020, with a year-to-date average of 38%.
Lala says Toyota is currently experiencing high consumer demand for its hybrid vehicle range.
“We are seeing more and more customers choosing to move to hybrids, with the ratio of hybrid to petrol/diesel sales sitting at over 40%,” he says. “For the month of October with the RAV4 alone we delivered 869 vehicles, of which 86% were hybrid electric variants (745).”
The increased percentage of hybrid sales has seen the overall average CO2 emissions for Toyota drop to 149gm/km which is a 2.6% decrease on the previous month .
Lexus New Zealand also had a strong sales month and is on track to deliver a record number of vehicles for 2021, with a 69% mix of hybrid product.
“We are excited to announce the arrival of some exciting new electrified product, including the new UX300e which is close to being sold out for this year already,” Lala says.
