Hybrids drive success for Toyota, Lexus in August

Toyota broke a two-month streak of declining U.S. sales in August thanks to strong demand for its Lexus brand and hybrid lineups.

Driving the news: Despite facing challenges with safety scandals and recalls, Toyota saw overall sales rise 1.9% in the U.S., reversing course after two consecutive months of year-over-year declines. However, its growth in August was driven primarily by the outstanding performance of its luxury brand, Lexus.

• Toyota’s name-brand sales declined 1.3% last month, weakened by lower demand for major models such as the Tacoma, Corolla, and Highlander.

• On the other hand, Lexus sales skyrocketed 25%, marking almost 20 months of consecutive gains.

Behind the scenes: Alternative fuel vehicles continued to play a major role in Toyota’s success, jumping 49% over August 2023 to 94,509 units.

• To put this into perspective, Toyota sold 198,708 units in the U.S. last month. This means that EVs and hybrids accounted for 47.6% of the brand’s sales.

Zooming in: The conversion to hybrid seems to have rapidly boosted demand for certain models as well.

• Last August, gas-powered models comprised the vast majority of Camry sales, which sold less than 20,000 units.

• This time around, Camry sales jumped 51% year-over-year to 25,087 units. Of these, less than 1% were non-hybrid.

Bottom line: Toyota is clearly driving success through its shift to more eco-friendly vehicles, even though it has refrained from emphasizing fully electrified models. That being said, it appears the company is facing stiff competition from others, who are slowly but surely clawing back market share in the U.S. If the Camry’s performance is any indication of where demand is headed, continuing the shift to hybrids may help the automaker reverse course and bring its name-brand sales back up from their current slump.

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