• In September, 48.4% of Toyota’s U.S. sales were “electrified.”
• Those were mostly hybrids and plug-in hybrids. 
• This year, Toyota’s hybrid sales are on a tear. 

---

Toyota is taking things nice and slow when it comes to fully electric vehicles. But its hybrid sales are another story. 

In September, nearly half of the automaker’s sales in the U.S. were “electrified” in some capacity, it said on Tuesday. That term encompasses hybrids, plug-in hybrids, full EVs and hydrogen-fuel-cell cars. For Toyota, it mostly means hybrids and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), as its electric and especially hydrogen vehicle sales aren’t nearly as significant. 

Even so, this was the best September sales month ever for the all-electric bZ4X, proving that whenever Toyota chooses to emphasize EV power, its buyers will show up.  

The Toyota bZ4X electric crossover.

To get specific, the automaker sold 78,683 electrified vehicles in September through the Toyota and Lexus brands, making up a whopping 48.4% of that month’s total sales volume.

Meanwhile, total sales for the month declined 20.3%, as compared with September 2023 as buyers increasingly balk at high prices and high interest rates. The automaker’s U.S. sales are still up slightly this year so far. Still, recent high-profile problems with its latest generation of truck engines probably didn’t help Toyota’s overall sales position last month. 

Much of the overall growth has been fueled by Toyota’s electrified sales, which are on a tear this year. Year-to-date, the company has pushed over 710,000 electrified cars. That’s 41.1% of its total sales. Compare that to last year’s numbers, and a clear trend emerges. In 2023, Toyota North America’s electrified sales through the third quarter totaled 455,148 units, or 27.9% of total sales. 

Toyota RAV4 Prime Plugged In

For years, Toyota has stuck to a wait-and-see strategy for full EVs. The automaker doesn’t think electric cars will make up as significant a portion of the global car market as some of its rivals do. So it’s invested much more heavily into hybrids and PHEVs, which it says help reduce vehicle emissions without the huge batteries EVs require. As growth in the EV market has slowed in the last year and hybrid interest has taken off, Toyota’s executives have taken something of a victory lap. 

In the U.S., the automaker now sells 30 electrified models. That includes one hydrogen vehicle and just two EVs: the Toyota bZ4X and Lexus RZ. Both have been surprisingly resilient sellers but suffer from weaker electric range and charging times compared to many competitors. The rest are hybrids and plug-in hybrids. 

Toyota’s top-selling electrified model year-to-date is the RAV4 Hybrid, with 152,328 sold. Next up is the Camry Hybrid, with some 122,000 sales. (The extremely popular and long-running Camry is now hybrid-only, boosting the Camry Hybrid’s year-to-date sales by roughly 100,000 units over last year.) The Sienna Hybrid, a minivan, comes in third with around 50,000 units sold.

The company’s best selling PHEV by far is the RAV4 Prime, at 24,580 units. Sales of Toyota’s two full EVs totaled out to just under 21,958 so far this year. 

Meanwhile, some automakers who invested more aggressively in the EV space are finally seeing those bets pay off. General Motors’ EV sales in Q3 skyrocketed 60%, as compared with the same period last year. And yet, the carmaker plans to push into hybrids as the EV market develops more gradually than it once expected.  

Contact the author: [email protected]