TOKYO (Reuters) -Toyota Motor ( TM ) sold 10.8 million vehicles in 2024, it said on Thursday, remaining the world's top-selling automaker for a fifth straight year.

The Japanese automaker posted a 3.7% drop in global group unit sales last year, including those of compact car maker Daihatsu and truck unit Hino Motors ( HINOF ).

The decline was largely due to a steep slump in sales in Japan where the automaker faced fallout from governance issues over certification test procedures, especially at Daihatsu.

Second-ranked German rival Volkswagen Group earlier this month reported a 2.3% decline in unit sales last year to just over 9 million vehicles, as it seeks to cut costs at home and fight a price war in key market China.

Sales of Toyota's ( TM ) parent-only vehicles, which include those of its namesake and Lexus brands, fell 1.4% from a year earlier in 2024 to 10.2 million vehicles due to a double-digit decline in Japan.

While Toyota ( TM ) sold a record number of cars overall, thanks in part due to demand for its hybrid vehicles in the United States, it saw unit sales in China decline by 6.9% amid heavy price competition in the world's top car market.

Of its parent-only sales, gasoline-electric hybrids made up a record 40.8%. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 1.4%.

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)