Affected by the scandal in Japan, Toyota's global sales in February decreased by 7% year-on-year

Intellifinance APP noticed that due to the sharp decline in sales caused by the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday and the impact of the safety test scandal in its small car department leading to a decline in sales in Japan, Toyota's global sales in February decreased by 7% compared to the same period last year.

Nearly two-fifths of the cars sold by the world's largest automaker in February were hybrid electric vehicles. Global sales data include cars sold under the Toyota brand as well as the luxury brand Lexus.

In the world's largest car market, China, sales dropped by 36%. This was due to the one-week Lunar New Year holiday falling in February, while it was in January last year.

Toyota's sales in Indonesia and Thailand also saw double-digit declines.

Toyota stated that intense competition in the Chinese car market affected sales.

However, data from an automotive industry association showed that the decline in car sales in China in January and February was much smaller, at only 0.7%, although still lower than the industry-wide increase of 6.4% in passenger car sales.

Toyota's sales in the United States and Europe increased by 16% and 14% respectively in February, but sales in Japan declined by one-third.

Domestic sales in Japan were affected by production halts at Daihatsu and the impact of the scandal on Toyota's reputation, even though Daihatsu brand cars are not included in Toyota's global sales figures. The small car company admitted to cheating in crash safety tests about a year ago.

Another set of data from Daihatsu showed that the company's global sales plummeted by 66% in February