TOYOTA Motor’s global sales rose 9 per cent in August from a year earlier to a record 923,180 vehicles thanks to an improvement in supply conditions and an increase in demand.

Global production rose 4 per cent to a record 924,509 vehicles, including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor and Hino Motors., the Japanese carmaker said on Thursday (Sep 28).

Sales of Toyota and Lexus brand cars grew more than 3 per cent in Europe, mostly in Italy, Spain and England. But sales dropped 4 per cent in Asia, including a 6 per cent decline in China, where the company and other legacy carmakers such as Volkswagen are struggling to compete with Chinese electric vehicle (EV) powerhouses, such as BYD.

Toyota’s sales in Japan grew 45 per cent from a year earlier in August and 63 per cent in South Korea.

The world’s best-selling carmaker has told suppliers that it plans to make 150,000 EVs this year, 190,000 in 2024 and 600,000 in 2025, according to a Nikkei report last week.

Toyota sold 11,880 battery EVs in August, bringing its total this year to 65,467. That’s more than double the 24,000 it sold in 2022, but still a far cry from the 1.5 million that chief executive officer Koji Sato promised it would sell every year by 2026. The company did not release August EV production figures on Thursday.

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Earlier in September, Toyota invited journalists on a tour of its factories to showcase the technology it is developing to mass produce BEVs. With a similar workshop in June, the company continues a publicity campaign to convince stakeholders that it has the means and conviction to catch up and compete with global EV frontrunners such as China’s BYD and Elon Musk’s Tesla. BLOOMBERG