Toyota, the world’s top-selling automaker, saw overall global sales drop again in May for the fourth consecutive month, even as battery electric vehicle (BEV) sales continued to accelerate.
Toyota has long maintained its allegiance to a “multi-pathway” approach to the energy transition, which is industry slang for prioritising hybrid electric vehicles and other alternative fuels such as hydrogen.
But despite its adherence to this multi-pathway approach, its sales numbers are not delivering – especially as the United States and Israel’s war with Iran continues to keep fuel prices high and unpredictable.
In its latest numbers for May published this week, Toyota revealed that it has now seen 4 consecutive months of year-over-year decline in its overall worldwide car sales.
For May, Toyota (including its Lexus brand) saw sales of 834,279 units, down 7.2 per cent over May 2025. This follows three months of similar year-over-year declines of 3.4 per cent (February), 7.3 per cent (March), and 3.1 per cent (April).
Conversely, Toyota and Lexus saw total BEV global sales reach 37,313, up 170.9 per cent over the same month a year earlier, though this still only accounts for a share of just shy of 4.5 per cent of all sales.
It is nevertheless an ongoing trend that Toyota will likely want to pay attention to. Year-over-year monthly sales have increased every month this year – up 87.5 per cent to 22,306 in January, and edging up slightly each month after, by 165.5 per cent (February), 139 per cent (March), and 134 per cent (April).
Through the first five months of 2026, total BEV sales have reached 155,074, up 138.3 per cent over the same period a year earlier.
Toyota’s numbers for its various hybrid offerings – including basic hybrids (HEV), “mild” hybrids (MHEV), and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) – continue to highlight the impact fuel prices are having on the company’s “multi-pathway” approach.
HEV sales for May were an impressive 396,468, but this represented an increase of only 4 per cent over May 2025. Similarly, MHEVs recorded 330,100 sales in May, down 7 per cent year-over-year.
And while PHEVs recorded 20,825 sales in May, up 34.9 per cent, this is an aberration so far this year, with the previous four months all recording year-over-year decreases in sales, resulting in a total of 73,074 sales so far this year, down 6 per cent against the same period in 2025.
Hydrogen fuel cell EVs (FCEVs) recorded only 48 sales in May, down 15.8 per cent, and with only 310 sold across the globe so far this year.
Whether Toyota will deign to consider these numbers representative of the industry-wide trend or not is another matter entirely.
See The Driven’s detailed EV sales data here: Australian electric vehicle sales by month in 2026; by model and by brand.
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