Toyota Avalon to be officially discontinued in the US

It appears that Toyota will be discontinuing the sales of its flagship Avalon sedan in the US, ending a long run that began since 1994. According to Automotive News, Toyota’s purchasing department has already informed suppliers via a letter that production of the Avalon will cease following the rollout of the 2022 model year.

However, a Toyota spokesperson confirmed that the Avalon will continue to be produced for China, a market with a big appetite for large roomy sedans. Production of the Avalon in China takes place at the FAW-Toyota Tianjin plant, although it is unclear how long the sedan will remain on offer.

Toyota has yet to make a formal announcement, but reports indicate that the decision to discontinue the Avalon in the US could be caused by the shrinking sedan market share. In fact, ever since the fifth-generation Avalon debuted back in 2018, year-over-year sales figures suggest buyers were not very interested in the sedan, despite being presented with a sportier TRD version for the first time.

The first full year sales in 2019 saw Toyota selling just 27,767 units of the Avalon, a 17.3% drop from 2018. This got worse in 2020 when sales dropped 33.7% to 18,421 units, but there has been a rebound this year (10,328 units sold in 1H 2021, up 36.6% from the same period in 2020). Still, the Avalon trails considerably far behind the Camry and RAV4. During the first half of 2021, Toyota sold 177,671 units of the Camry and 183,360 units of the RAV4 in the US.

To quickly recap, the Avalon rides on Toyota’s GA-K platform (shared with the Camry and Lexus ES), with power coming from either a 3.5 litre V6 with an eight-speed Direct Shift automatic transmission, or a 2.5 litre Dynamic Force four-pot hybrid. US customers have 10 variants of the Avalon to choose from.

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