Toyota Motor Europe reported sales for the first quarter of 2016 of 241,600 Toyota and Lexus vehicles, an increase of 5.1% from Q1 2015, in a European market still split between growth in the west and central Europe (+7.9%) and further decline in the east (-10%). Total market share for the group was 4.8%.
TME's sales in the EU+EFTA region grew by 6.8% year-on-year. Sales in the rest of TME's Europe region (including Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Caucasus, Turkey and Israel) were stable at -0.8% versus a market down by 10%. This resulted in an increase in share of 0.8 percentage point at 8.41% in the area.
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The sales growth in Europe was driven by another significant increase in Toyota and Lexus hybrid vehicle sales, up 38% from Q1 2015 at 71,749. Hybrid sales represented 30% of all sales of TME for the quarter, compared to 24% for the full calendar year 2015. TME plans to sell more than 270,000 hybrids in calendar 2016 and has a mid-term plan to sell achieve 50% hybrid sales by 2020.
The second contributor to the strong quarter were sales of Lexus premium vehicles. The brand recorded its best-ever quarter in Europe, up 16% year-on-year, with 18,058 sales.
