Toyota retained its title as the world’s largest carmaker for the sixth consecutive year by posting record sales despite trade turmoil and growing competition.
Namely, global sales in 2025, including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors, increased by 4.6 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 11.3 million units, the company announced this Thursday. Production rose by 5.7 percent to 11.2 million vehicles. By comparison, the Volkswagen Group’s total sales fell by 0.5 percent to nine million vehicles, widening the gap between the world’s two leading manufacturers.
Domination despite the challenges
These numbers show that Toyota has managed to stay on track despite the trade war waged by the US president Donald Trump and the rise of Chinese car manufacturers. Global carmakers have warned they face multibillion-dollar losses from the tariffs, forcing them to raise prices, shift production to the US or cut production.
Trump has already introduced a 15 percent tariff on imports from Japan, which includes all cars and auto parts. Although Japan avoided even steeper levies, it was still a significant increase from the previous rates of 2.5 percent. Most Japanese manufacturers tried to soften the blow by increasing production in the US, but collectively they still suffered multi-billion euro losses.
Despite this, Toyota and Lexus sales in the US were up 8 percent and production was up nearly 10 percent, thanks in large part to a return to the popularity of gasoline-electric hybrids. Total sales in Japan, which account for about 18 percent of the world total, rose 12 percent.
The Chinese market and the backlog in electrification
While Toyota was enjoying success, its Japanese competitors were facing difficulties. Honda’s annual global sales fell 7.5 percent to 3.5 million units, including a 24 percent drop in China. Nissan sold around 3.2 million vehicles, which is a decrease of 4.4 percent compared to the previous year.
Among its peers, Toyota has been one of the few to regain some stability in China, where domestic electric vehicle brands, led by BYD, have taken over much of the world’s largest passenger vehicle market.
BYD, which overtook Elon Musk’s Tesla as the world’s largest electric vehicle maker last year, has delivered 4.6 million vehicles in 2025, nearly half of which will be fully electric, according to a Bloomberg Business report. In contrast, Toyota sold just under 200,000 fully electric battery-powered vehicles last year. Only 4,227 units were delivered to customers in Japan, where such vehicles still haven’t caught on like they have in other major markets.
Toyota’s dominance therefore remains based on the strength of its hybrid and traditional internal combustion models