The company reported a 7.3% year-on-year drop in global sales to 897,871 vehicles during the month, reflecting broad-based weakness across key regions and temporary disruption linked to product restructuring. Overseas markets contracted by 7.2%, while domestic sales in Japan fell slightly more sharply by 7.8%. The figures also include performance from Toyota’s luxury division, the Lexus.
Regional performance was particularly uneven. The Middle East recorded the steepest decline, with sales plunging by nearly one-third. Although this market represents a relatively small portion of Toyota’s global footprint, the downturn was notable in scale. The United States saw an 8.5% decrease in sales, while China, another critical market for the company, posted an 8.0% decline.
Toyota did not provide a specific explanation for the sharp contraction in the Middle East. However, broader industry commentary has pointed to weakened automotive demand in the region, with disruptions in trade routes—particularly through the Strait of Hormuz—and wider geopolitical tensions cited by industry peers as contributing factors affecting logistics and consumer activity.
At the same time, internal production adjustments also played a significant role in the global sales dip. Toyota highlighted that output and deliveries were impacted by a transition between generations of its popular RAV4 sport utility vehicle, one of its strongest-selling global models. Such model changeovers typically result in temporary supply constraints as production lines shift to new specifications.
Despite the decline in sales, Toyota maintained a relatively stable production profile. Global output rose by 2.1% year-on-year in March, supported by stronger manufacturing activity in the United States and China, which grew by 4.9% and 7.7% respectively. Japan, however, saw a 3.3% drop in production during the same period.
The company continues to benefit from its scale and global reach. In 2025, Toyota remained the world’s top-selling automaker for the sixth consecutive year, underscoring its sustained leadership position in the global automotive industry despite periodic fluctuations in monthly performance.
While March results reflect short-term headwinds, including regional volatility and model-cycle disruption, underlying demand conditions were described by the company as broadly stable, suggesting that recent softness may be transitional rather than structural in nature.