Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda said in a June interview with UK automotive outlet Carwow that what scares him most is a world where everybody shifts to battery electric vehicles. A few months on, Toyota's August sales release made the company's position easier to read: Toyota and Lexus sold 267,649 BEVs from January through August, up about 129% from a year earlier and already past the 199,137 units sold in all of 2025.
But that jump still has not changed the bigger sales picture. Toyota and Lexus sold 6,655,766 vehicles globally over the same stretch, so BEVs were only about 4.0% of the total. Hybrids were still the heart of the business, with 3,093,426 units sold, up 5.3% year on year and equal to about 46.5% of total sales. Put simply, Toyota sold about 11.6 hybrids for every one BEV.
Toyoda says he feels alone defending combustion engines
In the Carwow interview, Toyoda said that three or four years ago, he was the only person telling the media that he loved the smell, the sound, and the engine itself. He said he also wanted to protect jobs at engine suppliers. "Right now, from where I stand, I really am the only one. I feel very lonely."
He also said the auto industry must build carbon-neutral vehicles, but that work does not excite him. "Cars are my toys. I want to build cars that I would want to keep in my own garage. If I have to make only carbon-neutral cars, that is not exciting."
Toyota has not backed away from combustion development. The company has been the world's top-selling automaker for six straight years. Carwow said Toyota has split GR into an independent sub-brand, is still working on a new 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and a V8, expects the GR GT to launch in 2027, and continues testing hydrogen engines.
BEV sales climbed fast, but hybrids still carry the business
Toyota's figures showed BEV sales hit 112,575 units from June to August, up about 117% from 51,968 units a year earlier. Across the first eight months of the year, BEV sales reached 267,649 units, versus 117,039 in the same period last year.
At its August 4 earnings call, Toyota said it expects global hybrid sales to top 5 million units for the first time this year. And starting in 2027, the company plans to roll out high-voltage batteries for next-generation hybrids.
Chief accounting officer Takanori Azuma said on the call, "Going forward, we need to strengthen the competitiveness of not only conventional models, but also battery electric vehicles."
European data points in the same direction
Data from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA, showed that battery electric vehicle registrations in the EU reached 1,641,333 units from January through August, giving BEVs a 21.7% market share. That was just above the 1,634,733 registrations for gasoline-only vehicles, which matches Toyoda's feeling that the market is moving.
Even then, hybrids were still the biggest category in the EU, with 2,759,718 registrations and a 36.6% market share. Same story, really. That is also the segment where Toyota is strongest.
China, not EVs, is the main source of pressure
In its August sales explanation, Toyota said overall demand stayed steady, but weaker sales in China dragged total volume below where it was a year earlier.
Toyota and Lexus sold 927,866 vehicles in China in the first eight months of the year, down 18.8% year on year. In August alone, China sales dropped 22.8%. Over the same period, North America rose 0.3%, Europe rose 0.7%, and Japan rose 6.0%.
Global sales in August totaled 790,743 units, down 6.4% from a year earlier, and overseas sales have now remained below the prior-year level for seven straight months. As BlockTempo put it, the main weight on Toyota's overall performance is coming from China, not from electric vehicles themselves.