- The Toyota RAV4 is often America’s fastest-selling new vehicle
- The company will have to slow production soon to retool factories to build an updated model
On many days, the Toyota RAV4 is the most popular new vehicle in America. That has given Toyota an enviable problem, but one car shoppers should be ready for. Dealers may run short of the popular RAV4 early next year.
The problem? Toyota is about to start building an all-new, improved version. The 2026 RAV4 will be available only as a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and come in sporty and off-road trims for the first time. But to build it, Toyota needs to temporarily pause plants to reconfigure them for the new model.
Toyota’s production of the popular car, explains industry publication Automotive News, “will slow dramatically as the world’s largest automaker juggles staggered changeovers at the four plants that build its most globally popular product for its largest market.”
Astonishingly, It’s Sometimes America’s Best Seller
- Ford’s F-Series truck has been America’s best-selling vehicle for nearly 50 years, but some days, the RAV4 now outsells it
The Toyota RAV4 has achieved something many in the automotive industry thought would never happen — on some days, it outsells the Ford F-150.
Ford’s full-size truck has been America’s best-selling vehicle for nearly half a century. However, Toyota’s compact SUV has proven to be the perfect answer for millions of families in recent years — reliable, large enough for most needs, attractive, and reasonably priced.
If Toyota spun the RAV4 off as a separate company, it would outsell the Ram, Mazda, and Volkswagen brands. Each Toyota dealership in the U.S. sells an average of 28 RAV4s per month.
To Convert to a New Model, You Have to Stop Building the Old One
Toyota builds RAV4s for the U.S. market at four factories — two in Canada, one in Japan, and one in Kentucky. Each station within each plant will have to stop assembling parts for the old one, be reconfigured, and start assembling parts for the new one.
Toyota thinks it can do that on a rolling basis. But that will still slow production.
“It’s a gradual process where the plant uses its off days, its down days, to remake the molds, to start swapping out equipment and tooling,” explains RAV4 Chief Engineer Yoshinori Futonagane. “Whatever changes they can implement, they do, then they wait for the very last minute, and then they’ll switch over.”
Toyota can stagger the process at all four plants. But it will still mean fewer RAV4s for a few weeks. Toyota already has a thin supply of its bestseller. In a market where automakers aim for a 75-day supply of new cars, Toyota has had as few as 16 days’ worth of RAV4s on hand this month.
Damon Rose, vice president of sales for the Toyota brand, told Automotive News the only question is “how fast the dealers will run out and how long their cupboard will be bare” until the new model starts rolling into dealerships.
Shoppers should be prepared for a wait.
