Toyota, the brand that sells, produces and exports the most in the country, announced that it surpassed the barrier of 30,000 hybrid vehicles sold in Argentina since 2009, when it introduced the revolutionary Prius.
The Japanese automaker leads the electrified vehicle segment with 78% of sales and so far in 2024 it has managed to market close to 7,500 hybrids.
The best-selling electrified vehicle in the country is the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid, which already represents 47% of the model’s sales, while in second place is the Corolla Hybrid.
Both are the only models with this technology manufactured in South America (Brazil), which allows them to have considerably lower prices than their competitors. Corolla Cross is also the best-selling electrified vehicle in Brazil, Chile and other Latin American markets.
Toyota Argentina’s electrified offer is completed with a third model: the Crown, a high-end car with the latest generation hybrid system. It also offers the Rav4 plug-in hybrid, although it is only available for rental through its Kinto platform.
Globally, Toyota has sold more than 23 million electrified vehicles between hybrid (HEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV), battery electric (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell (PHEV). Currently, the 44% of the brand’s sales in the world correspond to this type of vehicle.
The Toyota hybrid system combines an internal combustion engine with an electric motor and takes advantage of the vehicle’s own movement to generate electricity and charge a battery (that’s why they are self-rechargeable).
In this way, they considerably reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions: in the urban cycle, they have the potential to reduce it by up to 50% and for their average use, by around a third.
For this reason, it is considered that the introduction of three hybrids in the vehicle fleet is equivalent to eliminating the emissions of a conventional vehicle of similar dimensions.
A market that is slowly becoming electrified
The sale of electrified vehicles does not stop growing, although the pace is not as fast as other markets in the region.
According to the latest report from the Online Information System of the Automotive Market of Argentina (SIOMAA), in the first half of 2024, 6,169 hybrid and electric modelswhich represents a growth of 32.7% compared to 2023.
At the moment, about 40,000 vehicles with electrified propulsion system circulate in the country. Almost 90% of them are hybrids (HEV), with mild hybridization (mild-hybrid) gaining a lot of participation in recent times thanks, above all, to high-end brands that incorporated this technology as a unique offer in their vehicles. .
SIOMAA details that this incipient and slow incursion of hybrid and electric vehicles in Argentina occurs, as expected, in the most populated areas and especially in those jurisdictions that took the initiative to offer tax benefits, for example, in the payment of patent tax.
Currently, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, La Plata, Neuquén, San Juan, Mendoza, Río Grande (Tierra del Fuego), Santa Fe and Río Negro have some type of tax benefit for hybrid and electric vehicles, which must also be add Chubut and San Luis, which have discounts of between 25% and 75% on their patent taxes.
