Proactive Investors - Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) has trimmed full-year electric vehicle sales targets for the second time in a matter of months as demand appears to stubbornly remain for its hybrid models.
Sales of some 120,000 fully electric models are being targeted by the year-end, Toyota said in a third-quarter update on Tuesday.
This is down on previous anticipations of 123,000 sales offered last quarter, which itself was reduced from 202,000 initially.
Forecasted sales for hybrid vehicles were hiked by 14,000 units to 3.61 million meanwhile, as a focus on models which still partially require petrol and diesel looks to have paid off.
“As a realistic solution, hybrids are still favoured by our customers,” Toyota executive vice president Yoichi Miyazaki commented.
Toyota also hiked net profit predictions to 4.5 trillion yen (US$30 billion), from 3.95 trillion yen beforehand, as the figure hit 1.68 trillion yen for the third quarter.
The manufacturer's focus on hybrids comes after a wider trend of muted electric vehicle demand has appeared, with Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) and General Motors (NYSE:GM) having recently cut production as the likes of Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) cut prices to bolster sales.
Shares in Toyota climbed 4.8% to 3,135 yen throughout the day.