RAV4 Steals Crown from Prius as Toyota’s Best-selling Hybrid Model

The Toyota RAV4 hybrid has officially taken the crown from its sibling Prius as the brand’s best-selling gas-electric model so far this year.

The RAV4 hybrid has recorded sales of 29,319 units for the first half of 2019, outselling the entire Prius lineup that sold 29,241 cars within the same period.

This is not the only achievement that the model has so far because it also recently surpassed the Camry as Toyota’s best-selling model overall.

With the latest figures, the RAV4 hybrid makes up about 15 percent of Toyota’s total RAV4 sales, the model coming off a fresh redesign for the 2019 model year. The RAV4 currently has 200,610 units sold overall through June, which shows a 1 percent increase from the previous year.

Meanwhile, Prius sales are reportedly dropping with the hybrid hatchback plummeting almost 37 percent from 2018 despite a recent update that offers an all-wheel drive option.

One major factor that seems to be helping the RAV4 in its cause is the fact that the model is getting closer to the Prius in terms of fuel economy. Although the RAV4 hybrid still has lots of room for improvement with its 40-mpg EPA combined rating (versus the Prius’s 50-to-56-mpg rating), its predecessor registers a vastly improved 32-mpg combined rating.

The RAV4 and Prius hybrids are closely followed by the hybrid versions of the Camry and Highlander with 13,857 and 7,942 units sold, respectively.