Is the Pope Catholic? Does the sun fuse hydrogen? Act Toyota Did you sell the most cars last year? The answer to these three questions is: Yes, for a while and definitely.
For the sixth consecutive year, Toyota is the world’s leading automobile manufacturer, and the Toyota brand continues to be the most popular new car brand by several parsecs.
Across its three brands (Toyota, Lexus and Daihatsu), the Nagoya-based automaker sold 11,212,092 vehicles worldwide last year. This is an increase of 4.8 percent compared to 2024 or 516,168 additional vehicles.
If the volume of the pure truck brand Hino (110,483) is taken into account, the total number increases to 11,322,575.
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In contrast, sales of the second-placed Volkswagen Group fell by 0.5 percent to 8,983,900. This figure includes 305,600 semi-trailers from the company’s Traton division, which includes MAN, Scania and International.
Brands
All of Toyota’s car brands recorded an increase in sales volume, although Hino recorded a 12.0 percent decline. In January 2025, the truck brand settled a US$1.6 billion (AUD$2.3 billion) case brought by the US and California governments after admitting it falsified emissions test results for around 100,000 diesel trucks.
Daihatsu recorded the biggest improvement, all driven by a 46.1 percent increase in its home market to 536,566. This more than offset an 18.0 percent decline in Indonesia and other much smaller markets.
| brand | Sales 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota | 9,654,576 | +3.7% |
| Lexus | 882,231 | +3.6% |
| Daihatsu | 675,285 | +25.8% |
For the Volkswagen Group, the value-oriented brands Skoda and Seat/Cupra recorded the most significant growth. Audi and Porsche, which have typically been the automakers’ profit centers, saw declining sales.
| brand | Sales 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Volkswagen | 4,730,600 | -1.4% |
| Audi | 1,623,600 | -2.9% |
| Skoda | 1,043,900 | +12.7% |
| Seat/Cupra | 586,300 | +5.0% |
| Volkswagen Commercial | 393,700 | -3.6% |
| Porsche | 279,400 | -10.1% |
| Lamborghini | 10,700 | +0.6% |
| Bentley | 10,100 | -4.8% |
Markets
Both Volkswagen and Toyota break down their regional performance in different ways, with Volkswagen providing more detailed data on sales in Europe and Toyota presenting more data from Asia.
In the table below we have tried to merge the two data sets as best as possible, but some countries may fall into different categories depending on the company.
Please note that there is also a slight discrepancy as Volkswagen’s figures include the Traton truck division, while Toyota’s figures exclude Hino’s figures.
| region | Toyota Motor Corp | TMC change | Volkswagen AG | VAG change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 1,182,551 | +1.4% | 3,939,000 | +4.5% |
| North America | 2,929,660 | +7.3% | 946,800 | -10.4% |
| Latin America | 472,049 | -3.2% | 663,000 | +11.6% |
| China | 1,780,396 | +0.3% | 2,693,800 | -8.0% |
| Rest of Asia/Pacific | 3,982,317 | +7.2% | 320,400 | +8.5% |
| Middle East/Africa | 865,119 | +5.5% | 420,800 | +10.0% |
Toyota owes much of its improved performance to strong sales growth in the USA (+8.0 percent to 2,518,071) and Japan (+4.1 percent to 1,501,263).
Volkswagen lost ground in the USA due to the “challenging environment characterized by the customs situation” (minus 13.6 percent), but above all the numbers in China continued to decline due to the “continued intense competitive situation”.
There, Volkswagen lost its sales crown to BYD in 2023, an honor it had held since 1986. The brand remains committed to remaining the market leader for combustion vehicles in China.
Powertrains
Toyota is undoubtedly the king of hybrid vehicles, and full hybrid vehicles accounted for 42.1 percent of Toyota and Lexus sales in 2025.
The increase in mild hybrid volume is largely due to the V-Active system available in the HiLux ute.
| Drive type | Toyota/Lexus Sales | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Hybrid | 4,433,503 | +7.0% |
| Electric | 199,137 | +42.4% |
| Plug-in hybrid | 183,845 | +19.5% |
| Mild hybrid | 177,152 | +86.8% |
| Fuel cell | 1,257 | -29.3% |
Unfortunately, Volkswagen did not break down its electrified powertrain sales mix, but did provide details on its global electric powertrain sales.
Across all brands, electric vehicle sales rose 32.0 percent to 983,100 and accounted for 10.9 percent of all sales. The majority of EV volumes took place in Europe, although there was a significant increase in the US, likely due to the end of the US$7,500 (AUD$10,700) federal tax credit in September 2025.
Worryingly, the number of electric vehicles in China has plummeted, likely due to continued strength of domestic automakers in the pure electric and range-extender electric vehicle segments.
| region | 2025 EV sales | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Europe | 742,800 | +65.9% |
| USA | 72,000 | +45.7% |
| China | 115,500 | -44.3% |
| Rest of the world | 52,900 | +31.7% |
| World | 983,100 | +32.0% |
As we reported in January, Volkswagen is now the number one electric car brand in Europe, overtaking Tesla. Global sales of electric vehicles from the main passenger car brand Volkswagen remained stable, mainly due to poor figures from China.
| brand | 2025 EV sales | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Volkswagen cars | 382,000 | -0.2% |
| Audi | 223,000 | +35.6% |
| Skoda | 174,900 | +119.8% |
| Seat/Cupra | 79,700 | +65.9% |
| Porsche | 61,700 | +57.8 |
| Volkswagen Commercial | 58,600 | +103.4% |
The automaker also broke down sales of its 10 most popular models: Volkswagen ID.4/ID.5 (163,400), Volkswagen ID.3 (117,700), Skoda Elroq (95,300), Audi Q4 e-tron (84,900), Audi Q6 e-tron (84,400), Skoda Enyaq (79,600), Volkswagen ID.7 (79,500), Volkswagen ID.Buzz (60,700), Porsche Macan (45,400) and Cupra Born (43,700).
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