The Toyota hybrid boom has many buyers waiting for months for a small game

A buyer was informed that his Toyota Hybrid would take over 2.5 years to be delivered

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The demand for hybrid vehicles increased a lot in 2024, especially among those who are not yet willing to engage in an EV. However, Toyota, who is the world hybrid leader, has trouble meeting demand for his fuel efficient models on several markets, including the United States. This means that many buyers must wait until months before they can indulge.

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Anonymous sources say that shortages are also experienced in Europe, Japan, China and India. For example, waiting times in India are between two and nine months depending on the hybrid, while in Japan, they are between two and five months. Likewise, waiting periods across Europe have been almost doubled since 2020, generally from 60 to 70 days.

Growing demand, growing pain

Toyota is not just the outbreak of hybrid demand. Several figures from the industry interviewed by Reuters claim that there are bottlenecks in the company’s hybrid supply chain. For example, there is a shortage of magnets provided to the manufacturer of Aisin Corp of Toyota, triggering a delay in the delivery of hybrid engines.

In addition, Denso also meets bottlenecks in second and third level suppliers, which itself caused delivery delays for its inverters.

According to Toyota, hybrid demand has increased “considerably in the past year in all regions”, but said that “the production capacity for the parts and hybrid components of our suppliers and our manufacture of internal parts is online with our annual production plans and our vehicle assembly capacity.”

Long expectations turn into lost sales

In some cases, buyers are waiting for years to engage in delivery. A buyer from India, Saugata Dasgupta, said he ordered a Toyota Innova Hycross SUV in January 2023. In August 2024, he still had not received the hybrid and he was told that he should wait another 25 to 30 weeks. Earlier this month, he was told that he had to wait another 15 to 25 weeks, but he has already moved and bought a car in Mahindra & Mahindra.

In Europe, models like the Yaris Cross Hybrid and the Rav4 Plug-in Hybrid would be among the most difficult to find.

For the future, Toyota expansion operations in North Carolina could reduce the tightening. The company will start to ship batteries to this factory this month, which should be used in its growing range of electrified vehicles.