’s sales advanced in October as U.S. demand helped make up for a downturn in China and Japan, showing resilience in the face of tariffs thanks to strong demand for the best-selling RAV4 compact crossover and other vehicles.
Global sales, including at its Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd. units, climbed three per cent from a year earlier to 1 million units — an October record — the company said Thursday. Sales of Toyota and Lexus vehicles climbed 12 per cent in the U.S., though they fell 6.6 per cent in China and 4.2 per cent in Japan.
The figures show that Japan’s biggest company is increasingly counting on the North American market despite
’s tariffs on cars and car parts imported to the U.S. They also underscore how geopolitical friction with China may reshape its global sales, after Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comments this month about Taiwan prompted Beijing to take retaliatory economic and diplomatic measures.
Earlier this month, Toyota raised its annual operating profit guidance even as it anticipates a ¥1.4 trillion hit to its bottom line from Trump’s 15 per cent tariffs. That was after a downgrade in August. The carmaker now projects ¥3.4 trillion in profit for fiscal year ending in March.
Battery
sales jumped 74 per cent from a year earlier to 18,322 units globally.
Toyota’s numbers continue to show that it’s pulling far ahead of its nearest rivals in Japan.
.’s sales shrank for the seventh straight month, posting a 5.6 per cent drop in October to 292,319 units. Most of the decline was attributable to a steep 20 per cent decline in China, where many car buyers are shunning Japanese brands in favour of locally made electric vehicles.
Production at Honda’s factories in North American also shrank due a halt in shipments of chips made by Nexperia, the chipmaker based in the Netherlands that’s owned by China’s Wingtech Technology Co. Output in North America dropped 14 per cent to 134,454 vehicles in October, Honda said.
Earlier this year, the Dutch state invoked supervisory powers over Nexperia to safeguard crucial technology, citing concerns that actions by Wingtech risked hobbling the company. Nexperia is the last manufacturer with European production capacity for so-called “legacy” chips, which are crucial in the automotive and consumer electronics sectors.
Nissan Motor Co. saw sales fall 4.8 per cent to 258,517 units in October, as a 14 per cent decline in the U.S. dragged the numbers down despite a 11 per cent uptick in China.