Toyota Predicts End of Sedan Popularity
The 2016 Toyota Camry
For years now, the sedan has been the most popular choice for American drivers. The best-selling car list is always jam-packed with cars like the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, and it’s been that way for years. But now, Toyota is coming out with a rather unusual prediction. The maker of the Camry expects sales of compact crossovers to surpass that of sedans in the not-too-distant future.
The Camry itself has been the best-selling passenger car in the US for the last 13 years. Toyota expects to sell 425,000 Camry sedans by the end of 2015. Comparatively, the automaker is en route to sell 300,000 RAV4 crossovers by the end of the calendar year—up 16% from 2014. The RAV4 has become so popular that Toyota is expanding production to a new plant in Canada, meaning North America would have the capacity to build a total of 400,000 RAV4s each year.
The RAV4 crossover will gain a hybrid model for 2016
While the RAV4 isn’t quite at Camry level just yet, Toyota executive Bob Carter expects that the RAV4 will begin outselling the Camry in as few as five years. Speaking at a holiday party in Detroit, Carter was so sure of his prediction that he bet the audience lunch that it would happen. If it doesn’t, that’s a lot of lunches he will have to buy.
Sales of compact crossovers have been on the rise in recent years thanks to high fuel efficiency numbers mixed with utilizable space. The segment has become so popular that automakers have begun building even smaller crossovers, with offerings such as the Honda HR-V and the Mazda CX-3 already on the market. Toyota will follow suit sometime soon with the release of a Scion crossover based on the C-HR concept.
News Source: Left Lane News
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