Toyota doubles global sales to 859,448 units in April

Toyota Motor Corp. sold 859,448 units globally in April, doubling from a year earlier to a record-high for the month, as auto demand continues to recover from a slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The carmaker also doubled global production on-year to 761,459 units with robust demand in China and the US despite a global semiconductor shortage hitting the auto industry.

Both sales and production increased for the eighth straight month.

In its home market of Japan, Toyota's sales soared 27.1 percent on-year to 124,017 units, buoyed by the popularity of the Harrier SUV and Yaris compact car.

Toyota's overseas sales went up 2.3 times to 735,431 units, the largest-ever for April, due to brisk sales of sport utility vehicles in the US and Lexus brand cars in China.

Overseas output increased 3.1-fold to 493,854 units while 267,605 units were churned out in Japan in April, up 22.7 percent.

Toyota has been relatively unscathed from the global chip shortage that began late last year compared with its rivals such as Nissan Motor Co., which expects a production cut of around 250,000 units through next March.

However, Toyota will suspend operations at two plants in Japan for up to eight days in June due to the semiconductor shortage, which will likely reduce output by 20,000 units.