Blink and you will miss it. The Toyota Motor group (including Daihatsu and Hino) had just set a new sales record for its financial year ending March 2024, with 11,090,108 units sold, 5 percent higher than last year’s record of 10,558,230 units.

Unlike other manufacturers, Toyota didn't make any grand announcement of its latest sales record. There was not even a single mention by Toyota that it had set a new sales record. In fact, the numbers were hidden in an obscure link to an Excel file.

Toyota’s announcement to the press had a rather non-descript title, “Sales, Production, and Export Results for March 2024.” The brief announcement simply reads:

“Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces its sales, production, and export results for March 2024 as well as the cumulative total from January to March 2024, and the fiscal year from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, including those for subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. and Hino Motors, Ltd.,” with an accompanying link to an Excel file.

This low-key approach has been Toyota’s practice since 2021, when it made huge profits while rivals struggled with parts shortages due to Covid-19 disruptions. Toyota too struggled with parts shortages, but disruptions were less severe thanks to some deep self-reflections / kaizen process improvements made following the twin disasters of 2011 – the tsunami in Japan and severe flooding in Thailand.

Sales of Toyota and Lexus vehicles alone topped the 10 million units milestone for the second consecutive year, with 10,309,457 units, up 7.3 percent from the previous financial year. Sales outside of Japan was up 7 percent, reaching 8,779,639 units. Sales within Japan was up 8.7 percent.

Sales of many Daihatsu models were paused last (calendar) year due to a scandal involving non-compliance of safety testing procedures.

As expected, sales of Daihatsu vehicles dropped 19.1 percent to 650,452 units.

Hino, which had its own exhaust emissions report-related scandal, sold 130,199 units, or 10 percent less than the last financial year.

Separately, a Reuters report picking off the Mid Japan Economist newspaper say that despite the strong results, Toyota will intentionally reduce its sales in the coming financial year, to adopt a more sustainable pace of work, with a renewed focus on quality.

Also read: Toyota's 2023 results were SOO good, it's worrying, Chairman Toyoda wants to slow things down

Toyota’s biggest problem area is not China, but Southeast Asia

China remained a weak spot for Toyota, with intense price wars, but sales grew 1.4 percent to 1,901,686 units (including Hong Kong and Macau). March 2024 also saw a 1.6 percent drop in Greater China region sales.

The slowdown in China was compensated by record high sales in North America (2.73 million, up 13.8 percent), Europe (1.16 million, up 10.8 percent), and Japan (1.53 million, up 8.7 percent). The increase in these regions were mostly driven by strong demand for hybrids.

Despite what you may have read in other news reports, Toyota’s own numbers show that China is not its biggest headache, Thailand is. Toyota says the situation in China has stabilized, at least for them, as shown by the positive result – Toyota’s first in last three years in the Greater China region.

However, sales in Thailand had dropped 13 percent, to 249,638 units, while Vietnam is down 39.5 percent to 52,953 units. Overall car sales in Thailand and Vietnam (Total Industry Volume, TIV) had dropped by 8.7 percent and 25 percent respectively.

Toyota says the slowdown in Thailand is due to a weak economy. Price wars by Chinese players may be affecting second-tier brands like Nissan and Mazda in Thailand, but not Toyota, which derives most of its sales from the Toyota Hilux, a segment that Chinese players are not active in. Toyota remains the No.1 car brand in Thailand, its market share remains unchanged at 34 percent.

Following today's sales results announcement, Toyota is expected to announce its financial results sometime in May or June.