Toyota Motor Europe (TME) sold a record 1,229,038 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in 2025 (+1%). TME’s mix of electrified vehicles grew to 77%, an increase of 5%, with sales of battery electric vehicles up 46%, plug-in hybrids up 76%, and hybrids up 3%.

Toyota Professional’s range of commercial vehicles also achieved an all-time sales record of 158,270 vehicles, up 19% year-on-year.

“We are very proud to deliver another strong sales performance in Europe during 2025, which is a testament to our multi-pathway approach,” says  Till Conrad, Executive Vice President Sales at Toyota Motor Europe.

“We have continued to introduce new, exciting models to our line-up, including the Aygo X Hybrid and the new RAV4, and the zero-tailpipe-emission battery-electric Toyota C-HR+ and Urban Cruiser, with more new products coming in 2026,” he adds.

Per make

Toyota

Toyota sold 1,143,963 vehicles between January and December 2025 (+1% year-on-year), retaining its position as the 2nd-best-selling passenger car brand in Europe. The Yaris Cross was best selling car in the B-SUV segment with 11% share.  The brand’s top sellers also included the Yaris range, Corolla range, Toyota C-HR, RAV4, and Aygo X.

Toyota’s overall electrified sales mix is now at 76% (80% in Western Europe, 59% in Eastern Europe), with volume increasing 5% year-on-year. Sales of battery electric vehicles were up 53% year-on-year to 51,919, while plug-in hybrid sales increased 91% year-on-year to 71,845, driven by strong demand for the new Toyota C-HR Plug-in Hybrid. Where a hybrid vehicle is available in the model range, sales are almost 100% hybrid.

Lexus

Lexus posted sales of 85,075 for 2025 (-3.5% year-on-year). Lexus has a 100% electrified sales mix in Western Europe and 94% across the entire region. Key performers were the compact Lexus LBX Hybrid, which increased sales by 19% year-on-year, and the Lexus NX (available in plug-in hybrid and hybrid variants).

Toyota Professional

Toyota Professional (Light Commercial Vehicles or LCVs and pickups) continued to grow in volume, selling 158,270 vehicles in 2025, up 19% year-on-year. Strong demand for Hilux drove 20% year-on-year growth, with 46,101 vehicles sold.

The Proace Family range of commercial vans, with the addition of Proace Max in the Heavy Duty Segment, also experienced 19% year-on-year volume growth, driven by strong demand for its battery-electric versions.

Other continents, other visions?

It is clear that Toyota Motor Europe is working on the energy transition in its own way, promoting a multi-path approach and still boosting the hybrid technology it’s a world leader in. The vision at the top of the company in Japan appears to be slightly different.

In a major effort to appease and woo the Trump administration, Toyota is planning a new $10 billion investment in the U.S. and exporting Toyotas from there worldwide, even to Japan. This gesture of goodwill may still be comprehensible, but the recent picture of Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda at the Fuji Speedway isn’t.

How deep can one go on one’s knees (to use no other words) to stay friendly with the man who is destroying the world’s existing trading order at high speed? At least, we can say that it is extremely opportunistic and shortsighted.

Anti-climate lobbying

But there’s more. Over the past decades, Toyota has built a reputation as a ‘green’ car company, much aided by the introduction of the Prius and the image it gained worldwide. Toyota has also always promised to become carbon neutral as soon as possible and has presented its multi-path energy transition as the best and fastest way to reach these goals. The company also supported the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., Toyota Motor Corporation has presented itself as an aggressive anti-climate lobbyist. The company has become the largest automotive donor to climate deniers in the U.S. Congress, according to a report by Public Citizen.

It donated four times as much as Ford and twice as much as GM in 2024. According to the report, over the last three electoral cycles, Toyota has emerged as the top auto industry financier of climate deniers, financing 207 of their congressional campaigns.

While Toyota’s advocacy could be interpreted as an attempt to protect its profits, it is, of course, a very shortsighted view. From the 1970s onward, Toyota and other automakers introduced much-needed smaller, more frugal vehicles to the U.S. market.

Despite U.S. attempts at protectionism (which didn’t work then either), it catapulted Japanese car manufacturers to become the world’s top auto exporter, and Toyota to become and remain a global powerhouse and the largest manufacturer worldwide.

But now, Toyota finds itself on the opposite side of the equation and seems not to have learned from its own history. Worldwide, consumers will be demanding electric vehicles at an increasing rate, and if Toyota refuses to provide them, the Chinese and others will happily take over the market.