√Toyota GR Yaris orders no closer to resuming in Australia

Nine months after order books closed, Toyota Australia is no closer to signing up new customers for its popular GR Yaris hot hatch – despite a sales slowdown so far this year.

Hot hatch fans still cannot place a new order for a Toyota GR Yaris in Australia – nine months after order books closed, and despite a slowdown in the number of cars being delivered to local buyers.

Launched in late 2020 from $49,500 plus on-road costs, the first 1000 examples of the GR Yaris sold out within days at a promotional $39,950 drive-away price.

A further 100 examples sold for $44,950 drive-away soon after – and 200 Rallye variants went for $56,200 drive-away in early 2021.

By April 2021, Toyota Australia found itself with “over 2200” GR Yaris (including Rallye) orders, and was forced to close the order books on 1 July 2021.

However, nine months on, Toyota Australia is still not accepting new orders either variant of the GR Yaris.

The only examples in dealerships appear to be near-new or demonstrator models.

“Orders are currently still paused. We will give an update on this in due course as we try to secure more production,” a Toyota Australia spokesperson told Drive.

Toyota Australia confirmed to Drive more than 2100 GR Yaris cars have been delivered to local customers since the November 2020 launch.

However, only about 500 of them have been delivered since orders closed in July 2021 – with around 120 delivered so far in the first three months of 2022.

The latest tally compares to 1149 examples of the Toyota GR Yaris delivered in Australia in the first half of 2021, and about 550 in the final months of 2020.

The declining sales figures are likely due to supply restrictions, rather than a drop in demand.

The second half of 2021 (and early 2022) saw Toyota Japan forced to halt production in various factories due to a shortage of semiconductors and other critical parts.

In April 2021 – before the production stoppages, and the pause on orders – Toyota Australia told Drive: “Based on our current supply schedule, we are expecting more than 2000 … orders will be fulfilled in 2021, with a small percentage to be fulfilled in early 2022.”

It remains to be seen if Toyota GR Yaris orders resume in Australia before the arrival of Toyota’s second Gazoo Racing hot hatch.

The Toyota GR Corolla is due in Australian showrooms in the fourth quarter of this year (October to December).

Supply for the hot Corolla is also expected to be extremely limited, with just 2000 examples earmarked for all global markets except the US – which is Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

The Toyota GR Yaris sales figures means it has accounted for about a third of all Toyota Yaris sales since the hot hatch launched nearly 18 months ago, with the 2100-plus GRs comparing to 6321 Yaris models in total.

The Rallye variant has accounted for approximately 29 per cent of GR Yaris hatchbacks sold since the model launched in March 2021.