Toyota took a different approach to electrification than other automakers, and it’s paying off. The company has some EVs where it needs them, but perhaps more crucially, Toyota offers tons of great hybrids. Add in a good truck lineup in North America, and it’s easy to see how Toyota eclipsed 900,000 global sales in July 2025, a record for that month.
In total, Toyota sold 963,796 cars—including those from Lexus, Daihatsu, and Hino—in July. North America remains Toyota’s biggest market, with 254,298 sales last month, thanks to the strong performance of hybrid models and big demand for trucks like the new Tacoma and 4Runner. In Europe, where so many automakers are struggling, Toyota sales were up year-over-year, too.
Even in China, which has proven extremely difficult for non-Chinese automakers, Toyota touts a strong performance with 151,669 sales. It credits the bZ3X EV, which it builds together with GAC, as well as its own hybrid offerings there. And in its home market of Japan, Toyota sold 135,249 cars, saying demand there remains “steady.”
In total, Toyota has sold an astonishing 6,058,731 cars through July, over 2.9 million of which are electrified in some capacity. Though of those, only a little under 100,000 were full battery-electric vehicles. That said, last month was Toyota’s best for BEV sales, with it moving 17,896 globally.
Photo by: Toyota
So while Toyota is still heavily reliant on pure-combustion vehicle sales, there is no doubt that its hybrid models are doing big things for the automaker. Here in North America, over 800,000 of the nearly 1.7 million cars it’s sold this year were electrified in some form.
Toyota chairman and former CEO Akio Toyoda was heavily criticized for favoring hybrid over pure-electric vehicles, but as demand for EVs slows in many markets around the world, Toyota is laughing its way to the bank. Yet, it’s also still pushing into the EV space, making better and more varied models while also going all-hybrid for venerable nameplates like the Camry and RAV-4.
At least for now, Toyoda-san seems to have made the right choice.
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