NAGOYA (Kyodo) -- Toyota Motor said Thursday that its global sales rose 10% from a year earlier to a record 876,864 vehicles for the month of April, as demand grew ahead of the negative impact of higher U.S. tariffs on imported cars.
The world's largest automaker by volume said its global production increased 7.8% to 814,787 vehicles last month, also an all-time high for April. President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25% tariff on cars produced outside the U.S. on April 3.
The automaker has said it will not pass on the cost of the tariff to consumers in the U.S., but auto analysts say the company will be under pressure to do so if the higher levy remains in the long term.
Sales outside of Japan climbed 9.7% to 756,190 vehicles, of which 233,045 were sold in the U.S., growing 10% from the year before.
Sales in Japan were up 11.8% to 120,674 units, recovering from a slump caused by a vehicle certification scandal that briefly halted production of some models last year, with the upturn also aided by the impact of new model launches.
For the full business year through March, Toyota said it expects a 34.9% drop in net profit to 3.1 trillion yen ($21 billion), due to Trump's tariff measures and a stronger yen, which decreases exporters' overseas profits when repatriated.
