Toyota Motor Europe (TME) has announced that the performance of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) drove the strong new car sales performance between January and the end of June 2019.

The hybrid line-up across the Toyota and Lexus brands now extends to 20 different models, including four major new introductions brought to market during the first four months of this year. TME reported half-year sales of 578,400 vehicles across the region, an increase of 3.3 percent on the same period last year, giving the company a 5.3 percent market share.

Matt Harrison, TME executive vice-president, said, “The first half of the year has been vibrant for us, with no fewer than four model launches during this period. Although the European market has weakened overall, Toyota and Lexus sales have increased thanks to strong demand for our hybrid models. We were confident of continuing to grow our sales and market share this year, but demand is even higher than our expectations. This strong performance will continue in the second half of the year, putting us on track to exceed our Toyota and Lexus sales objective of 1,065,000 sales, due to the strength of our hybrid order bank.”

Toyota claims that the customers are responding very well to the new Corolla Hatchback and Touring Sports, which are available with two hybrid electric powertrains in Toyota’s new dual-hybrid strategy: 1.8-litre/120bhp and 2.0-litre/178bhp. The combined sales mix for the two body styles is 83 per cent hybrid. Meanwhile, the new Corolla Saloon has adopted a hybrid powertrain for the first time, claiming around half of the model’s sales total. Toyota further revealed that the demand is also strong for the new RAV4 and the new Lexus UX compact SUV, with hybrid electric sales mixes of 72 and 92 per cent respectively.

The new Camry, successfully launched in Western Europe this year, is sold exclusively with a hybrid electric powertrain. Toyota further revealed that other models, such as the C-HR and Yaris hybrids have achieved record sales, supporting the strong overall performance of HEVs.

Lexus sales increased by five per cent on 2018’s performance, thanks to the good performance of the new ES and UX.

The HEV share of TME sales stands at 52 per cent across greater Europe, and 62 percent in Western Europe.

Toyota’s market share in Europe for H1 2019 is 5.3 percent, a YoY growth of 0.4 percent. Of the total 578,400 units sold, the total Toyota hybrid sales came to 303,400 units, YoY growth of 18 percent.