Tesla ends Camry’s 28-year best-selling run, and even drew reaction from Toyota

Tesla Model 3 has ended the Toyota Camry’s 28-year run as the best-selling car in Australia and even drew a small reaction from Toyota.

For the last 28 years, the Camry has been the best-selling mid-size car in Australia.

It was on a path to make it 29 years, but Tesla delivered 1,806 Model 3 vehicles in December, bringing the total to 10,877 Model 3s in 2022 and beating the Camry, which had 9,538 units delivered last year.

It made the Tesla Model 3 the new best-selling mid-size car in Australia. It’s the first time that an electric car has held that title.

The change appears to have taken Toyota by surprise since the automaker still listed the Camry as a best-selling medium car in the country in its press release bragging about its dominance over the Australian auto market, but it had to add a mention of vehicles for less than $60,000:

Toyota vehicles were the best-selling models in nine market segments last year: Corolla (small cars), Camry (medium cars <$60K), RAV4 (medium SUVs), LandCruiser Prado (large SUVs), LandCruiser wagon (upper large SUVs), HiAce (light buses), HiAce (vans), HiLux (4×2 PU/CC) and HiLux (4×4 PU/CC).

The Model 3 starts at $64,000 in Australia compared to $30,000 for the Camry.

Electrek’s Take

We are starting to see things like that in more and more markets every year.

Quite soon, only electric vehicles are going to be top-selling vehicles and Toyota is going to need a lot more of them if it still wants to be able to have those lists in its annual press releases.

The Japanese automaker has been falling behind when it comes to all-electric vehicles as it bet heavily on hybrids, which are just not cutting anymore.

Hopefully, things like that where an all-electric vehicle takes a 28-year title away from it would light a fire under them.