Toyota Sales And Production Hit Record Levels As Hybrid Demand Boosts Profits

Talk of Toyota’s demise as an automotive juggernaut in the electrified age has been greatly exaggerated with the Japanese car manufacturer reporting a significant spike in sales and production in September and through the period from April to September. It’s profits were up too.

In September, the Toyota brand itself sold a total of 921,308 vehicles, an 11.6% increase from the same month last year. At the same time, Daihatsu sales increased by 2.4% to 71,350. Sales of Hino models dropped by 11.6% to 11,121 units but still, overall group sales were up by 10.5% to 1,003,779 units. Toyota’s sales outside of its home market, including the Daihatsu and Hino brands, rose by 9.3% to 800,591 units.

Read: Toyota’s Global Sales Jump 9% Thanks Largely To Japanese Demand

Toyota’s production figures are also strong. The carmaker built 900,919 cars in September and of these, 310,920 were manufactured in Japan (a 12.8% increase) while 589,999 were built overseas (a 3.6% decrease). September marked the ninth consecutive month of year-on-year production increases for Toyota but it was the second consecutive month of year-on-year production decreases outside of Japan.

For Toyota’s first-half fiscal year running from April to September 2023, worldwide sales jumped to 5,172,387 units, a 9.1% increase while production rose by 12.8% to 5,058,248 units. Across the January to September period, worldwide sales are up 6.7% from last year to 7,571,733 units and production has grown by 10.1% to 7,402,861 units. Production inside Japan has been a key driver for the firm this year with it growing 27.3% to 2,500,988 units since January.

Sales of Toyota and Lexus models jumped by 9.4% in North America, 7% in Europe, 17% in the Middle East, and 22% in Africa through the April-September period. Toyota enjoyed a particularly fruitful September in North America, reporting a 17% increase in sales year-on-year “as a result of strong demand for electrified vehicles such as the Corolla and Tundra HEVs in addition to semiconductor shortages trending toward recovery.”

Record profits too

At the same, in the period spanning from July through September, Toyota achieved a record-breaking operating profit of 1.44 trillion yen ($9.5 billion), marking a remarkable 155.6% surge compared to the previous period last year. Toyota attributes a significant portion of this success to the surging demand for its hybrid vehicle offerings. The company’s ‘electrified models’, which mainly consist of hybrid and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) cars, accounted for 36.4% of Toyota’s total global sales in the quarter, marking a significant increase from the 27.3% share recorded a year earlier.