Now that 2020 is over, car manufacturers have a much clearer picture of how the global pandemic affected auto sales. Toyota Motor North America has released its final US sales figures for 2020, ending the year on a high with 249,601 vehicles sold in America in December across the Toyota and Lexus brands. Impressively, that's a 20.4 percent volume increase compared to December 2019.

However, the automaker's 2020 calendar year sales decreased by 11.3 percent with a combined 2,112,941 vehicles sold by Toyota and Lexus. Despite this, Toyota remained the number one retail brand in the US for the ninth consecutive year.

The Toyota division sold 211,378 vehicles in the US in December 2020, up by 22.9 percent compared to December 2019, and 1,837,900 vehicles in all of 2020, down by 11.9 percent.

Breaking down the sales figures, Toyota's push for electrification appears to be working because the automaker's December hybrid sales increased by a whopping 82.8 percent in the US compared to December 2019 with 50,649 vehicles sold across the Toyota and Lexus brands.

Combined, Toyota and Lexus' total US hybrid sales in 2020 also increased by 22.7 percent with 337,036 vehicles sold, helped by the recent launches of the new Sienna, Venza, Mirai, and RAV4 Prime. With as many as 14 hybrids in its current lineup, hybrid cars made up nearly 16 percent of the company's North America 2020 sales. In the Toyota division, hybrid sales doubled in December and were up by 26.7 percent in 2020.

For the 19th consecutive year, the Camry was best-selling passenger car in the US with 294,342 vehicles sold in 2020, while the RAV4 was the best-selling SUV in the US for the fourth year in a row and Toyota's best-selling model in 2020 with 430,387 vehicles sold in the US.

Unsurprisingly, pickup trucks and SUVs dominated Toyota's December sales as the Highlander, RAV4, Highlander Hybrid, Tacoma, and 4Runner had their best December sales month.

Lexus also finished 2020 on a high as December was the automaker's best sales month of the year with 38,223 vehicles sold in the US. Out of these, 29,578 were trucks and SUVs including the LX, GX, and RX, although passenger car sales were also up by 14 percent. In the US, Lexus sold 5,730 hybrid vehicles in December, which is an all-time monthly high. 2020 was also the best-ever sales year for the UX and UX hybrids.