Toyota Global Sales Fall 2.2% to 860,107 Vehicles in September for Third Straight Month
Key Facts
Toyota's global sales fell 2.2% year over year in September to 860,107 vehicles, marking a third consecutive monthly decline, according to company results reported by Reuters. The decline came amid a clear divergence across markets, with sales down in China and the Middle East and up in the United States and Japan. Global production fell 3.2% to 889,079 vehicles in the same month. Toyota's figures include its luxury Lexus brand. The third straight monthly decline puts weakness in Asian and Middle Eastern markets against growth recorded in the United States and Japan.
China was one of the main sources of pressure on sales, with Toyota sales there falling 19.7% in September, marking an eighth consecutive month of decline. The company said higher fuel prices weighed on demand for gasoline and hybrid vehicles. This indicates that the downturn in the Chinese market affected vehicles powered by both conventional fuels and hybrid systems, according to Toyota's explanation cited in the coverage. No separate reason was given for the decline in Middle East sales, where the drop reached 29.8%. The decline in the Middle East was greater than that recorded in China during the month, while the coverage offered no specific explanation for the regional drop.
By contrast, Toyota sales in the United States, its largest market, rose 8.4% in September, while sales in Japan increased 1.8%. These gains show that the company's performance did not decline across all its major markets during the month. On the production side, output fell 18.6% in China and 2.9% in the United States, while rising 5.8% in Japan. Thus, growth in Japanese sales coincided with higher production there, while the United States recorded higher sales and lower production. China, meanwhile, saw declines in both sales and production, according to figures reported by Reuters.
Foreign investment actually used in China fell to 548.81 billion yuan in the January-to-September period, down 4.3% year over year, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. But investment rose 2.5% in September alone compared with the same month a year earlier. In a separate reading of industrial activity, the official manufacturing purchasing managers' index stood at 50.1 in September, up 0.3 points from the previous month and back in expansion territory. China's manufacturing value added also rose 5.9% year over year in the third quarter, while construction value fell 4.4%. These indicators provide context for the Chinese economy, but do not directly measure auto demand or Toyota sales.
In the stock market, Toyota shares, listed under the ticker TM, closed at $194.85 on October 28, compared with a close of $198.22 on October 22, according to EL7 data. That put the October 28 close below the level recorded six days earlier. Toyota announced September sales, production and exports results, along with the cumulative total for the period from April to September. The reported figures cover sales, production and exports over the specified period. The announcement includes September data and the cumulative total for the months from April through September 2026.