Hybrid Merajai, Toyota Electric Car Sales In Japan Drop Drastically

Toyota bZ4X. (Photo: Toyota)

JAKARTA The trend of environmentally friendly cars in Japan does not fully side with pure electric vehicles (BEVs). In fact, hybrid cars are still the main choice of consumers. Toyota is proof of this, with a record of conventional hybrid sales that penetrated 603,676 units until August.

Overall, Toyota managed to record sales of 617,947 units, up 8.8 percent compared to the previous period. Of these, 13,551 units are plug-in hybrid (PHEV), while the other 251 units are hydrogen-fueled vehicles.

But what was quite surprising, Toyota's sales of pure electric cars in the domestic market actually fell sharply. Based on the Carscoops (Wednesday, October 1) report, throughout August Toyota only managed to sell 18 BEV units in Japan. This figure fell dramatically, even the sale of BEV during the first eight months of 2024 was only 469 units, falling 71.1 percent compared to last year.

Turning It Around In The Global Market

Although sales in Japan have weakened, Toyota's performance in the global market has shown a positive trend. Demand for battery-based electric vehicles has increased rapidly, with a total of 117,031 BEV units sold since the beginning of the year, up 20.6 percent. In particular, in August alone, Toyota recorded sales of 17,056 units, soaring 34.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

Sales Momentum Stays Strong

In total, Toyota's worldwide performance continues to show growth. Until the first eight months of 2024, Toyota and its brands under "Dahihatsu, Hino, and Lexus" have sold 7,409,273 vehicles. This figure is an increase of 6.2 percent compared to last year.

With stable sales trends and bright prospects in the global market, Toyota has the potential to surpass its target of 10.8 million vehicle sales units globally by 2024.