Toyota Motor sold 5.059 million vehicles worldwide in the six months through September 2026, down 4.0% from the same period a year earlier and the first such decline in two years, the company said on Oct 29, 2026. The figure includes Lexus. Sales held up in North America and Japan, but a sharp contraction in China dragged the total down.
North America set a first-half record at 1.539 million units, up 1.8%. With gasoline prices high, buyers moved toward the fuel-efficient hybrids Toyota is known for, and hybrid sales there reached 779,000, a 20.2% increase.
Europe also set a record at 595,000 vehicles, up 1.4%, again led by hybrids. Domestic sales in Japan rose 12.4% to 803,000, helped by new model launches.
China falls by a quarter
China was the outlier. Sales there fell 25.1% to 685,000 vehicles, and hybrid volume slipped 9.9% to 392,000. The overall new-car market has cooled as the economy slows, and demand for gasoline-engine cars and hybrids has fallen faster than for new-energy vehicles, the category that covers electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
The result leaves Toyota leaning on the US and Europe to offset China, where local makers have taken share in exactly the segments Toyota still sells most of there.
Hybrids carry the US and Europe
Toyota's hybrid strategy — selling gasoline-electric cars alongside battery-electric models rather than betting on EVs alone — has been the main support for its volumes outside China. In North America, hybrids accounted for just over half of the 1.539 million vehicles sold in the period.
In China, the same lineup has worked against the company. Buyers there have shifted toward battery-electric and plug-in models, and Toyota's China sales of hybrids fell even as its overall volumes dropped by a quarter.
Toyota announced the figures on Oct 29, 2026, covering April through September of the 2026 fiscal year.