Toyota Is Still The World's Largest Automaker

For the fifth consecutive year, Toyota has maintained its position as the world’s largest automaker, despite experiencing a slight dip in sales.

In 2024, Toyota and Lexus sold 10,159,336 vehicles, marking a 1.4% decrease from 2023. Despite the drop, Toyota retained a significant lead over Volkswagen, which secured the second position with 9.03 million units sold, a 2.3% decline from the previous year.

Toyota’s biggest sales decline came from its home market of Japan, where it faced a 13.8% drop in Toyota and Lexus sales. This was largely due to a certification testing scandal that forced production halts on multiple models, including the Toyota Prius.

Meanwhile, sales outside Japan saw a 0.5% increase overall. The strongest growth was seen in North America, where sales increased 4.3% to 2,729,987 units. Europe's demand for hybrids helped push a 3.6% rise to 1,166,325 units, while in Asia, Toyota reported a 3.1% sales decline to 3,214,633 units, mainly driven by a 6.9% drop in China—Toyota notes "intensifying price competition" from domestic Chinese automakers as the primary reason for the slowdown.

Despite the overall sales decline, Toyota’s electrified vehicle lineup grew significantly in 2024, increasing 23.2% year-over-year to 4,532,721 units. Toyota’s hybrid technology continued to be the backbone of its electrification strategy, accounting for 40.8% of the company’s global sales in 2024.

Self-charging hybrids led the way with 4,142,412 units sold; plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) accounted for 153,829 units. Battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) totaled 139,892 units, making up just 1.4% of total sales, while mild-hybrids contributed 94,810 units. Fuel-cell vehicles (FCEVs) remained niche, with just 1,778 units sold.

Toyota didn't release a breakdown of figures on a model basis, but it’s fair to assume the RAV4 and Corolla maintained their positions as the company’s best-selling vehicles worldwide. The RAV4 remained the best-selling Toyota model in the U.S. in 2024.

The company’s reliance on hybrid technology over full electrification remains a key strategy, and will likely prove even more fruitful in 2025.

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