Toyota Sees Strong September Driven by Highlander, RAV4

Editor’s note: Toyota revised its September sales numbers this afternoon,  issuing a slightly higher sales increase for the month reflecting higher sales than previously stated of certain model lines, such as the Prius and RAV4. Further, days’ supply figures now include port inventory. The story has been updated to reflect these revisions.

The CUV trend shows no signs of abating, at least at Toyota where the brand’s compact and midsize CUVs the RAV4 and Highlander posted best-ever September sales, driving total Toyota U.S. deliveries up 11.6% on a daily-selling-rate basis.

Toyota last month sold 12,310 Highlanders and 27,104 RAV4s, with the latter model topping the volume of Toyota’s Corolla compact car for just the third time. WardsAuto data shows August 2014 and September 2014 were the two previous months when the CUV outsold the C-car.

Toyota has 20-25 days’ dealer and retail supply of RAV4s, Bill Fay, Toyota Div. group vice president, tells media in a conference call, but concedes it’s becoming harder to fulfill demand, as light-truck sales have been at record levels in the past two months and September looks to be another strong month for the sector. Total RAV4 days’ supply, including inventory at ports, is 34, a Toyota spokesman tells WardsAuto.

The situation is the same at Lexus, where utility vehicles drove the luxury brand’s 11.1% growth last month.

“We have every reason to believe the luxury-utility-vehicle market will see continued growth throughout the remainder of this year,” Jeff Bracken, Lexus U.S. group vice president, tells media on the call.

Lexus’ year-old NX compact CUV registered another strong monthly volume of 3,113 in September and has sold 31,947 units this year. Lexus has said it will deliver roughly 40,000 NXs in the U.S. this year as it is capacity constrained due to demand for the CUV in other markets.

Although RX sales slipped slightly, down 0.1%, the CUV held steady as Lexus’ best-selling model, with 7,759 delivered last month. The next-generation RX goes on sale in November in the U.S.

Lexus car sales fell 3.5%, with the IS, ES, GS and LS lines all posting losses. The new RC coupe added 1,159 units to Lexus’ 25,294 September deliveries.

At Toyota, strong CUV sales didn’t hurt the brand’s cars, as the sector’s sales rose 17.4% on a DSR basis. The Corolla had a 24.6% spike in demand and the Camry rose 16.1%.

The Prius family had its second-best September, selling 16,110 units last month, up 8.3% from year-ago.

Toyota truck sales fell as both the Tacoma and Tundra lost ground from September 2014. Fay blames the former’s 7.1% drop off on the transition to the new ’16 model. The Tundra’s 11.6% decline came as a result of Toyota prioritizing Tacoma builds. Both trucks have a less than 15 days’ supply, he says, however the spokesman says days’ supply with port inventory factored in is 24 for the Tacoma and 40 for the Tundra.

Toyota is adding a third shift at its Tijuana, Mexico, plant to meet Tacoma demand, and it is rumored it will do the same at its San Antonio plant building both models.

The iA and iM cars proved to be the shot of new product Scion needed, as sales at the youth brand finally got into the black for the first time since May 2013, rising 50.4%.

Scion sold 2,035 subcompact iAs and 1,353 compact iMs.

The added volume offset declines at all the brand’s other models, including the departing xB, which lost 9.9% of its year-ago volume.

Toyota ended September with 215,000 units in dealer stock and Fay estimates there are 280,000 units in the brand’s pipeline.

Fay says Toyota’s outlook for the remainder of 2015 is good, noting consumer confidence rose to its highest level last month since September 2007.

Besides the RX, Lexus will launch refreshed versions of its GS and LX models, as well as introduce new turbo 4-cyl. engines in the IS and GS cars.

At Toyota, the brand is prepping for the launch of its Mirai hydrogen-fuel-cell car. Some 1,900 hand-raisers have shown interest in the model, which Toyota will begin selling in the U.S. later this month.

[email protected]