Tariffs, Toyota, hybrid vehicles and US demand shaped the global auto market in 2025, yet the Japanese carmaker still delivered record results despite President Donald Trump’s trade levies. According to Toyota Motor, they sold 10.5 million units globally and have maintained the title of the largest automobile manufacturer in 2025 for the 3rd consecutive year. Toyota continues to demonstrate strong sales globally against other competitors like Volkswagen and Hyundai . The results of Toyota and Lexus (luxury division) combined showed a 3.7% increase year-over-year, due primarily to positive demand from North America and continued growth globally. Toyota performed better than expected despite 25% tariffs imposed by the United States on Japanese-produced automobiles and later reduced to 15%. Analysts speculated that new tariffs on Japanese vehicles would cause tons of lost volume. US hybrid sales boosted the growth of Toyota and Lexus Toyota and Lexus total sales in the US were up 7.3% to 2.93 million units, with hybrids such as Prius and RAV4 accounting for the majority of the volume. With fuel economy being of high importance to US consumers and the rising costs associated with fuel (which were very high at this time), this was a beneficial time for Toyota to promote fuel-efficient vehicles. In an effort to avoid the shortfall due to large price increases associated with tariffs, Toyota focused on eliminating costs while at the same time increasing production of its vehicles in the US. Due to the fact that approximately 1/5 of total Toyota and Lexus sales were from imports, the company had a significant advantage over competitors like Chrysler that rely more heavily on imported vehicles. This comes as Toyota has started building batteries in the US for the first time ever. In November, Cryptopolitan reported that the company confirmed production had kicked off at its new $13.9 billion battery plant in Liberty, North Carolina, a facility that’s now officially the automaker’s first in-house battery factory outside Japan. At the same time, Toyota said it would pump in an extra $10 billion into its US operations over the next five years, on top of what was already planned, with no further specifics given. Managing costs as tariffs squeeze rivals Toyota recognizes the impact tariffs will have financially by estimating a 1.45 trillion yen loss from operations for the period ending March 2026. However, it has enhanced its full-year operating profit forecast recently as a result of processing cost controls and strong demand globally outside of the United States. In comparison, competitors such as Hyundai experienced dramatic contrasts. Global revenue growth of above 6% is attributable to online sales in the United States for hybrids, whereas operating profits for Hyundai declined by almost 20% due to the impact of tariffs. Moreover, Hyundai is significantly more impacted than Toyota because approximately 40% of its US sales are domestically produced. In late 2025, Toyota raised its operating profit forecast for the financial year ending in March to 3.4 trillion yen (around $30.3 billion), which is higher than the previous 3.2 trillion yen outlook. Toyota made that forecast even as it warned that new US import tariffs will cost the company 1.45 trillion yen, saying it expects stronger results over the full year despite pressure on quarterly performance. Nonetheless, they have made commitments to increase production levels dramatically by 2030. Investors in Toyota have responded very favorably to Toyota’s soundness by increasing their stock price by 3%, while analysts are predicting an upward trend for operating profit close to 30% for the latest quarter. Claim your free seat in an exclusive crypto trading community - limited to 1,000 members.
