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Toyota will sit out of Australia's people mover segment – dominated by the Kia Carnival – claiming buyers are moving to luxury options such as its $200,000 Lexus LM.
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Toyota has reiterated it does not intend to return to offering a people mover in Australia to compete with the popular Kia Carnival.
The nation's highest-selling car brand, which discontinued its HiAce-based Granvia earlier this year, said the segment is shifting toward luxury offerings such as its circa-$200,000 Lexus LM, which launched in Australia last year.
Toyota Australia vice president of sales, marketing and franchise operations Sean Hanley told Drive there are no plans to introduce a new Toyota people mover to local showrooms, but claimed there is room "certainly, in the Lexus line-up".
"That's kind of where that market is moving, and that is an ideal position for our Lexus brand," Hanley said.
"There are no immediate plans at all to bring a people mover in. We've done it, and tried it [with Granvia]. There's a market, but it's not huge – it's relatively small."
Toyota offers the Alphard and Vellfire people movers – close relations to the more luxurious Lexus LM – in Japan, while the Sienna sold in the United States is built in the same factory as the Kluger, but has not been engineered for right-hand drive.
Australia's sub-$70,000 people mover segment is led by the Kia Carnival, which holds an 80 per cent market share, while other models, such as the Hyundai Staria, Ford Tourneo and LDV Mifa, sell in far smaller quantities.
Ubiquitous across Toyota's passenger-car and SUV line-up in Australia, the Kia Carnival now offers customers the choice of a petrol-electric hybrid system, along with V6 petrol and turbo-diesel four-cylinder power.
The Lexus LM is the most expensive people mover currently available to order in Australia, priced between $168,520 and $223,520 before on-road costs, with 212 reported as sold year-to-date.
"If you go into a niche market like Lexus in that high-end luxury people-moving stakes, then for them, it works a treat," Hanley told Drive.
2020 Toyota Granvia XV
Across both price brackets, while a modest sales growth has been recorded compared to 2024, people movers have accounted for just 1.2 per cent of all new cars sold in Australia year-to-date.
Final deliveries of the Toyota Granvia, which replaced the Tarago six years ago, occurred in Australia in March 2025, with the model discontinued due to low demand and the investment required to meet the ADR 98/00 safety standard mandated earlier this year.
"We initially planned to upgrade the Granvia to meet the new standard but upon reviewing sales, market conditions, production complexity and future regulations, we decided not to proceed and to instead retire the nameplate," Hanley said in a media statement in February.
"The people mover segment makes up just one per cent of the total market with buyers gravitating towards large SUVs. In the end we couldn’t make a compelling business case for continuing with the vehicle."
However, speaking with Drive, Hanley added Toyota's decision not to offer a people mover in Australia is not permanent and it is continuously evaluating its product portfolio based on market trends.
"You never get complacent with your model strategy. You've always got to be looking forward and [seeing] where it is going," he said.
"We say today, 'No people mover', but someone could be sitting here in five years, going 'Well, actually, it's moved again'."
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Jordan is a motoring journalist based in Melbourne with a lifelong passion for cars. He has been surrounded by classic Fords and Holdens, brand-new cars, and everything in between from birth, with his parents’ owning an automotive workshop in regional Victoria. Jordan started writing about cars in 2021, and joined the Drive team in 2024.
