REUTERS
January 31, 2025 at 07:20 JST
Toyota Motor's Prius hybrid vehicle (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Toyota Motor sold 10.8 million vehicles in 2024, it said on Thursday, remaining the world's top-selling automaker for a fifth straight year.
The Japanese automaker posted a 3.7-percent drop in global group unit sales last year, including those of compact car maker Daihatsu and truck unit Hino Motors.
The decline was largely due to a steep slump in sales in Japan where the automaker faced fallout from governance issues over certification test procedures, especially at Daihatsu.
Second-ranked German rival Volkswagen Group earlier this month reported a 2.3-percent decline in unit sales last year to just over 9 million vehicles, as it seeks to cut costs at home and fight a price war in key market China.
Sales of Toyota's parent-only vehicles, which include those of its namesake and Lexus brands, fell 1.4 percent from a year earlier in 2024 to 10.2 million vehicles due to a double-digit decline in Japan.
While Toyota sold a record number of cars overall, thanks in part due to demand for its hybrid vehicles in the United States, it saw unit sales in China decline by 6.9 percent amid heavy price competition in the world's top car market.
Of its parent-only sales, gasoline-electric hybrids made up a record 40.8 percent. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 1.4 percent.
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