While most automakers around the world made a sudden pivot to electric cars, Toyota held off and decided to stick with hybrid models and slowed its rollout of battery-powered cars. Now, that cautious approach to electrification appears to be paying off, as hybrid cars just helped the Japanese automaker to a record-breaking year in terms of deliveries and sales.
Toyota announced this week that across its brands it sold more than 10.3 million cars through its latest financial year, reports Bloomberg. As the site explains:
Production rose 4.5% to 11.2 million units on robust demand in North America, Europe, and India. Output was firm in Japan as well, despite a temporary halt in shipments in the latter half of the year after Daihatsu was found to have been manipulating crash safety test results for more than 30 years.
Toyota’s sales in China increased 1.4%, contrasting with the struggles faced by some Japanese peers amid the growing popularity of local carmaker BYD Co.
The world’s largest carmaker sold 116,654 battery electric cars between April 2023 and March 2024. Sales and output at the main Toyota brand and its luxury marque Lexus were up 7.3% and 9.2%, respectively.
That 7.3% growth for Toyota over the year isn’t to be sniffed at, but it pales in comparison to the gains seen across the company’s hybrid lineup. According to company sales figures, Toyota shifted more than 3.5 million hybrid electric models, marking a 31.1% increase on the year before. Its total electrified sales hit almost 3.9 million and accounted for more than a third of its worldwide sales.
Included in those electrified sales is the firm’s output of fully-electric cars, which includes models like the BZ4X. Around the world, Toyota managed to sell 116,000 battery electric cars, which was almost three times as many EVs as it shifted a year previously.
Read more: Hybrid cars are back in as electric vehicle sales slow
A version of this article originally appeared on Jalopnik’s The Morning Shift.