Toyota Motor Europe (TME) sold 279,000 vehicles in the first three months of 2019, achieving a hybrid electric vehicle mix in excess of 50%—one year ahead of plan.

With a year-on-year rise of 14%, hybrid models helped TME maintain sales in Q1 2019 in a declining market, pushing up TME share to 5.2%

The majority of customers chose hybrid electric versions of newly launched Toyota Corolla, RAV4 and Lexus UX models.

Despite the weaker European market and the staggered launch of three new models, Toyota & Lexus sales remained stable in the first quarter thanks to strong demand for our hybrid models. With the successful launch of three important new models through the first quarter, we are confident that we have the product power to continue to outperform the market in the remainder of the year. Given our strong order bank, I am confident we will achieve, as a minimum, our total Toyota and Lexus sales objective of 1,065,000 this year.

—Matt Harrison, TME Executive Vice President

Customers responded very well to the new Corolla Hatchback and Touring Sports. Both models initiated Toyota’s dual-hybrid strategy, with the availability of two hybrid electric powertrains: 1.8L - 122 hp and 2.0L - 180 hp, representing a combined hybrid mix of 95%.

The Corolla Sedan, a favorite in Eastern Europe, Turkey and Israel, is now—for the first time—also available with a hybrid electric powertrain that represented 60% of the new model sales.

Demand was also strong for the new RAV4, and for the new premium crossover Lexus UX that just started sales, with hybrid electric mix of 89% and 87% respectively.

Other models such as the Toyota C-HR Hybrid, and the Yaris Hybrid also supported the strong performance of HEVs.

The HEV share of TME sales stood at 51% across Greater Europe, and at 61% in Western Europe only.