Over 60% Of Toyotas Sold In Q3 Were Electrified

A growing proportion of Toyota and Lexus sales are EVs, hybrids, and plug-in hybrids. And the company isn't slowing down any time soon.

2026 Toyota RAV4 PHEV

Photo by: Patrick George

Suvrat Kothari

By: Suvrat Kothari

Oct 1, at 1:38pm ET

Add InsideEVs as a preferred source in Google

Comment

High gas prices due to the war in Iran gave Toyota and Lexus hybrids a boost in Q3.
The sales of electrified models grew 28.5% even though overall sales were flat.
The Camry is Toyota's best-selling model so far this year, followed by the RAV4, and Sienna in a distant third.

Toyota’s electrified vehicle sales reached new heights in the third quarter, even as its overall sales were flat over the same period last year. The automaker said Thursday that hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric models accounted for a record 61% of its sales mix between July and September.

Including both Toyota and Lexus brands, the automaker sold 633,223 vehicles in the U.S. in the third quarter, a 0.6% year-over-year increase. But a whopping 363,367 of those models were electrified, up 28.5% from the same period last year. The vast majority of those were regular hybrids, followed by plug-in hybrids, and fully electric models.

The U.S. war in Iran which began towards the end of February has strained global oil supplies and kept gas prices elevated in the U.S. for a prolonged time period. Analysts said this has nudged buyers towards more fuel-efficient hybrids, boosting the sales for automakers with hybrid-heavy lineups, like Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Kia.

2026 Toyota bZ Woodland

2026 Toyota bZ Woodland charging at an Ionna station in New Jersey.

Photo by: Suvrat Kothari

For model-specific sales, Toyota only releases monthly and year-to-date numbers, not quarterly figures.

The automaker sold 931,434 hybrids between January and September this year, and that’s despite the production ramp up of the sixth-generation RAV4, which is now hybrid-only. The RAV4’s overall sales were actually down 6.6% in September as the factory scaled up production, while declining by 29.2% year to date.

However, robust sales growth in the rest of the hybrid lineup, including the Camry, Sienna Hybrid, and Grand Highlander Hybrid made up for that.

The Japanese automaker’s EV sales were nowhere as impressive, but there are some standouts. The sales of the refreshed bZ have doubled from last year, growing 103% to 24,994 units in the first three quarters of this year. That means year-to-date, the bZ is ahead of key rivals like the Chevy Equinox EV (18,154 units), but still lagging behind the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (31,112 units).

Lexus RZ 550e F Sport

Photo by: Suvrat Kothari

What do you think?

View

Comments

The new C-HR and bZ Woodland didn’t quite add meaningful sales volume, with their January-September sales standing at 7,215 units and 2,600 units, respectively. We’ve compared all the new Toyota EVs here at InsideEVs—you can read that review here.

For Lexus, the RX crossover continued to be the brand’s top-seller. Of the 89,824 RXs sold year-to-date, 37,448 were hybrids and 5,738 plug-in hybrids. Sales of the fully electric RZ also doubled through September to 10,214 units. As expected, the new generation ES Hybrid is outselling its all-electric counterpart by more than double, with 5,133 units versus the EV’s 2,083 units.