The Camry Is Outselling the RAV4 This Year

The Toyota Camry is the best-selling Toyota in America through the first nine months of 2026, ahead of the RAV4, after its sales rose 11.2% to 260,684 while the RAV4 fell by almost a third.

That turns last year’s order around. The Camry was Toyota’s second-best seller in 2025 with 316,185 sales, up 2% from 309,876 in 2024, but the RAV4 sold 479,288 and was well clear. This year the RAV4 has sold 253,664 through September, down 29.2%, which leaves it about 7,000 units behind the sedan.

The figures come from Toyota Motor North America’s September and third-quarter sales report, released October 1. The Camry sold 25,350 cars in September, up 3.4%, and its year-to-date total compares with 234,426 at the same point in 2025. Nearly every one of them is a hybrid, since the current Camry is sold only with the hybrid powertrain, and the report counts 260,671 Camry Hybrids so far this year.

The RAV4’s slide has an obvious cause. Motor1 reported that the previous-generation RAV4 was being phased out in December 2025, and the redesigned 2026 model took its place, so the crossover’s numbers this year include a model changeover. The Camry carries over from 2025 with no such disruption, and its growth is outpacing the rest of the lineup. Toyota division sales are up just 1.2% for the year at 1,613,846, its trucks and SUVs as a group are down 0.1%, and its cars are up 4.1% to 500,024.

The Camry accounts for more than half of those car sales by itself. The Corolla is the next-biggest Toyota car, with 195,141 sales through September, up 8.4%, so both of Toyota’s mainstream sedans are growing while, as Motor1 noted, many competitors have shifted their focus to SUVs.

Toyota’s 2025 report listed the Camry Hybrid among the division’s best-ever results that year, and the 2026 pace is ahead of it. Through nine months, the Camry has already sold 82% of its 2025 total with a full quarter to go.

The Toyota Report Take

The RAV4 will almost certainly pass the Camry again once the new generation is in full supply, so this lead won’t last. Still, it matters that the sedan was the one ready to catch the buyers, because it shows the hybrid-only Camry isn’t just holding its old customers but adding new ones. The industry wrote off the midsize sedan years ago, and Toyota is now selling more of one than of anything else it builds.