TOYOTA Motor Corporation (TMC) has celebrated a Japanese fiscal year (April 2025 – March 2026) sales record, finishing the period with sales up 2.5 per cent year-on-year to 11.28 million units.
While the group (including Daihatsu, Hino and Lexus) is still a week away from announcing its fiscal year profits, the results show that Toyota’s “multi-pathway approach” to new energy vehicle technologies have helped to insulate the company from the effects of US tariffs and inconsistent battery electric vehicle demand globally.
Daihatsu – which was forced to halt production in early 2024 following a certification scandal – rebounded strongly, with worldwide sales rising 13.9 per cent to 697,271 units. Hino, meanwhile, continued its decline, with global volume falling 13.1 per cent to 108,619 units.
Although the fiscal year numbers show a healthy increase, month-by-month sales in the first quarter of 2026 headed in the wrong direction – potentially signalling a weaker result for the 2026-27 financial year.
Toyota’s sales figures show the company sold 887,266 units globally in January (up 4.8 per cent YoY), and just 806,182 units in February (down 2.4 per cent YoY).
March results fell by an even greater percentage, the month’s 983,126 sales representing a YoY decline of 5.8 per cent.
US sales of Toyota and Lexus models climbed 7.7 per cent to a record 2.52 million units in the just-ended fiscal year, Canadian sales increased by 6.8 per cent to 248,238 vehicles, while European sales grew 1.5 per cent to 1.18 million units – another record for the Japanese brand.
Global hybrid sales advanced by 0.5 per cent to 4.34 million units – accounting for close to 40 per cent of TMC’s total deliveries – while BEV sales rose 31 per cent to 188,785 units, or just 1.7 per cent of the car-maker’s overall global volume.
That last figure means every region reported in TMC’s most recent fiscal year results filed its best year yet for BEV sales, led by China.
Including plug-in hybrids (152,071 units, down 5.6 per cent), mild hybrids (118,510 units) and fuel cell vehicles (1,275 units), total electrified Toyota and Lexus sales reached 4.8 million units or 45.8 per cent of combined Toyota and Lexus deliveries (and 42.5 per cent of all TMC volume).
TMC prestige brand Lexus sold 870,570 units across the 2025-26 fiscal year, with almost half of that figure (405,261 units) sold into North American markets.
Asia (excluding Japan) was the second strongest market for Lexus, where 236,154 units were sold (down 0.5 per cent on the 2024-25 fiscal year).
While BEV sales in China are growing strongly, overall Toyota and Lexus sales in the country dipped 1.4 per cent to 1.76 million units amid intensifying competition from domestic manufacturers.
India proved a bright spot for TMC in Asia, with sales surging 21.4 per cent to 371,536 units.
The 2025-26 fiscal year numbers continue a mostly steady trajectory for the Japanese brand.
Reviewing the company’s production sales figures from 2018 to now, we note increases of 1.9 and 1.5 per cent in the lead up to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company taking a 1.4 per cent production hit in 2020, followed by a sharper 5.1 per cent hit the following year.
Sales recovered quickly in 2022, up 4.7 per cent, staying positive through 2023 and 2024 (up 1.7 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively) before falling slightly in 2025 (down 0.7 per cent).
2018-26 TMC total sales (including Daihatsu, Hino, and Lexus)*:
*Sales data supplied courtesy of Toyota Motor Corporation