Toyota sales and production reach record levels as hybrid demand drives profits

Toyota sales jumped 11.6% in September, while production numbers also rose this year

1 November 2023 at 19:38

Talk of Toyota’s demise as an automotive juggernaut in the electrified age has been greatly exaggerated as the Japanese automaker reported a significant rise in sales and production in September and during the April-September period. Its profits have also risen.

In September, the same Toyota brand sold a total of 921,308 vehicles, an increase of 11.6% over the same month last year. Meanwhile, Daihatsu sales rose 2.4% to 71,350 vehicles. Hino model sales fell by 11.6% to 11,121 units, but overall group sales rose by 10.5% to 1,003,779 units. Toyota’s sales outside its home market, including the Daihatsu and Hino brands, rose 9.3% to 800,591 units.

Read: Toyota’s global sales jump 9% thanks largely to Japanese demand

Toyota’s production numbers are also strong. The automaker manufactured 900,919 vehicles in September, of which 310,920 were made in Japan (up 12.8%) while 589,999 were made overseas (down 3.6%). September was the ninth straight month of year-over-year production increases for Toyota, but it was the second straight month of year-over-year production declines outside Japan.

For the first half of Toyota’s fiscal year, which runs from April to September 2023, global sales jumped to 5,172,387 units, an increase of 9.1% while production rose 12.8% to 5,058,248 units. During the period from January to September, global sales increased by 6.7% from a year ago to 7,571,733 units, and production grew by 10.1% to 7,402,861 units. Production within Japan has been a key driver for the company this year, increasing 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 during the period from April to September. Toyota enjoyed a particularly productive September in North America, where it recorded a 17% increase in sales year over year “as a result of strong demand for electric vehicles such as the Corolla and Tundra Hybrid as well as semiconductor shortages that are on track to recover.”

Record profits too

Meanwhile, in the July-September period, Toyota achieved record operating profits of 1.44 trillion yen ($9.5 billion), representing a notable increase of 155.6% compared to the previous period last year. Toyota attributes a large part of this success to the growing demand for its hybrid vehicle offerings. The company’s “electric models,” which mainly consist of plug-in hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), accounted for 36.4% of Toyota’s total global sales in the quarter, representing a significant increase from the 27.3% share recorded a year earlier.