Toyota Motor Corp. is on course to defend its title as the world's top-selling automaker after its January to September global figures reached a record 8,265,145 vehicles sold (Toyota, Daihatsu and Hino brands combined). This was announced by the company in its 30 October report.

For the last three years, the Japanese auto giant was able to defend its title against rival Volkswagen Group. Last year, Toyota sold a total of 10.5 million vehicles against Volkswagen's 8.3 million.

The company attributed the positive growth to improved production capacity in response to solid demand.

Among the regions, Africa turned out to be the most profitable as sales of Toyota and Lexus brand cars rose 22 percent.

The Middle East market came second with a 17 percent sales growth. Other notable regions cited by Bloomberg include the North American market (9.4 percent) and European market (7 percent). Sales, however, were relatively weak in some parts of Asia, excluding Japan, partly due to economic slowdowns in places such as Thailand and Indonesia.

Below 1 percent in China

Interestingly, Toyota's sales in China rose less than 1 percent, as Chinese buyers have mostly switched to electric vehicles.

China is currently one of the world's largest EV markets and thanks to new launches and discounts offered, it is reported that Chinese EV makers are on target to smashing their 8.5 million 2023 sales  goal in the mainland.

Meanwhile, Toyota's electric vehicle sales jumped sevenfold to 58,984 units globally in the April-September period after it launched new models to broaden its emissions-free lineup.

The automaker sold 1.83 million electric, hybrid and other types of battery-driven vehicles.

Last September, Toyota Motor announced that it will speed up the production of EVs under its Toyota and Lexus brands. According to Nikkei newspaper, the company is set to step up production of battery-powered vehicles over the coming years to reach an annual output of more than 600,000 vehicles in 2025.