A Toyota dealer will be seen on November 19, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Toyota Motor retained its position as the world’s best-selling automaker in 2025, posting a record sales of 10.5 million units, the Japanese auto giant said. reported on Thursday.
sale Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus lagged behind, up 3.7% year-over-year Volkswagen Group’s 9 million units and Hyundai Motor Group’s 7.27 million units.
In particular, demand has been boosted by strong sales of hybrid vehicles such as the US Prius and RAV4 models.
Toyota’s strength in the US comes despite an aggressive tariff regime by US President Donald Trump, who initially imposed 25% tariffs on Japanese cars and later reduced them to 15%.
In the US, sales of Toyota and Lexus vehicles increased by 7.3% to 2.93 million units.
The results show success in Toyota’s strategy to absorb the costs of the tariffs, rather than pass them on to consumers through massive price increases, with an emphasis on local production and other cost controls.
During the company evaluated In November, it said U.S. tariffs would still hit 1.45 trillion yen ($9.7 billion) in the fiscal year ending in March 2026, while it raised its full-year operating profit forecast, citing successful cost cuts and strong demand outside the U.S.
Tariffs hit the opponent
In another sign of global auto demand, Toyota rival Hyundai Motor reported a more than 6% increase in global revenue in 2025 from a year earlier, driven by hybrid sales in the US.
However, its operating profit was hurt by the tariffs, falling 19.5% from a year earlier, with US duties costing the South Korean automaker 4.1 trillion won.
South Korea and the US agreed to a trade deal last year that reduced tariffs on many South Korean products, including cars, to 15% starting in November.
However, Trump on Monday threatened to raise rolling back tariffs to 25%, saying the country’s legislature had not moved fast enough to implement the deal. Hyundai shares fell about 5% on the news.
Hyundai’s US sales are increasingly dependent on imports, the company said in September about 40% In 2025, the volume of products sold in the United States was produced domestically. The company hopes to bring more than 80% local production at its Georgia plants by 2030.
Toyota relied almost exclusively on imports It accounts for one-fifth of its sales in the US – he aspired Aggressive expansion of manufacturing in the USfocus on hybrids.
Toyota Motor plans to report its fiscal third-quarter earnings on February 6. Analysts expect the company’s operating profit to grow by nearly 30% compared to the same period last year, Reuters reports.
Toyota shares rose 3% in Thursday’s trading.
