Toyota has suffered first profit fall for the first time in half a decade.
The Japanese auto maker said it sold more cars in the year to March 2017 than in the previous 12 months but that higher costs and currency fluctuations hit results.
The profit of 1.83 trillion yen ($16.1 billion) was down 21% from 2016-2017.
Toyota has warned 2016 profits will be even lower, due to the strength of the Japanese currency.
Photo AP
The company’s prediction is based on a forecast that the yen will average around 105 to the US dollar in the year through to March 2018, compared with 108 yen in the last financial year.
Toyota, which has lost its top-selling carmaker status to Volkswagen, sold 10.25 million cars over the year, up from 10.19 million units a year earlier.
However, income from those sales was slightly down at 27.6 trillion yen.
Toyota has been struggling in the US, its biggest market. Sales fell in North America as the company battled to meet demand for bigger cars such as SUV’s, which have become more affordable to drive thanks to lower petrol prices.
Earlier this year Toyota said it would invest $10 billion in the US over the next five years.
Toyota is voluntarily recalling more than 7 million vehicles worldwide, including some Yaris, Corolla and Camry models, over faulty window switches.
Toyota said these would include 1.39 million vehicles across Europe, 2.47 million in the US and 1.4 million in China.
It is the biggest single one since Ford recalled 8 million vehicles in 1996.
Toyota said there had been no reports of accidents, injuries or deaths as a result of the window problem.
Toyota is also recalling 459,000 vehicles in Japan, 650,000 vehicles in Australia and Asia, as well as hundreds of thousands from across the Middle East, and from within Canada.
The range of Toyota cars affected include certain models of the Yaris, Vios, Corolla, Matrix, Auris, Camry, RAV4, Highlander, Tundra, Sequoia, xB and xD produced between 2005 and 2010.
The company said in a statement that the problem lay with the electric window switch that controls the windows for the driver and passengers.
It says that on certain models the switch may not operate smoothly and could then end up becoming stiff or not working.
Toyota says that applying oil to the switch could cause it to overheat and possibly melt.
It will be contacting drivers with the affected models over the coming weeks and asking them to bring their car in for checks to see if there is a fault.
