Toyota Motor (TYO:7203) reported on Monday that its global vehicle sales decreased for the fourth consecutive month in May, as weaker demand outside Japan outweighed continued strength in its domestic market.
Including its Lexus luxury brand, Toyota's worldwide sales in May fell 7.2% from a year earlier, totaling 834,279 vehicles. Sales outside Japan were the principal source of the decline, dropping 9.6% to 715,898 units in the month. By contrast, sales within Japan rose 11.1% to 118,381 vehicles.
The company singled out China - including Hong Kong and Macau - as a particularly weak market in May. Sales in that region slumped 31.7% year-on-year to 102,299 units. Toyota characterized the situation in China as a challenging market environment and noted that rising gasoline prices were a factor.
India was a notable bright spot in May, where Toyota's sales increased 15.3% to 30,227 vehicles. The company attributed the improvement to strong consumer demand for specific models - the Urban Cruiser Hyryder, Innova Hycross, and Innova Crysta - alongside recent tax reductions on automobiles.
North American sales were broadly unchanged year-on-year, edging down 0.1% to 280,539 units in May.
On the production side, Toyota's global output including Lexus fell 5.5% in May to 765,470 vehicles, marking its first year-on-year production decline in three months. The automaker pointed to fewer operating days at some plants as the reason for lower production, while noting that overall demand remained steady.
Looking at the cumulative performance for the first five months of 2026, Toyota's global sales were down 3.5% versus the same period a year earlier, at 4.14 million vehicles. Production over the same five-month span declined 2.1% to 3.98 million units.
Contextual summary: May's results show a split between stronger domestic sales in Japan and India and notable weakness in China and other overseas markets. Production was scaled back in part because some assembly plants operated fewer days during the month.