Toyota fans should be ecstatic about latest 2026 Camry development | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Toyota’s (TM) success in the Western hemisphere is undeniable.

Of the 2.4 million vehicles Toyota sold worldwide in the first quarter of FY 2026, nearly 800,000 of those sales came from North America, making it by far Toyota’s most important region.

North American new vehicle sales rose by 89,000 units to 794,000.

However, thanks to Trump’s tariffs, profitability in the U.S. also took a huge hit. Toyota’s operating income in North America fell by $1.1 billion from a profit a year ago to a net loss of $438 million.

North America was the only one of Toyota’s six operating regions to lose money. However, thanks to a $4.4 billion profit in Japan and a $1.1 billion operating profit across Asia, Toyota was able to report an overall quarterly profit of $5.8 billion, down from the $8.5 billion it reported a year ago.

Toyota isn’t sitting on its hands, even as Japanese/American tariff negotiations seem to have hit a serious snag.

“There’s no point striking a deal with the U.S. without an agreement on automobile tariffs,” Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s lead trade negotiator, said earlier this summer.

The company left its production forecast for the year unchanged, save for one major difference: Toyota expects to produce 50,000 fewer vehicles in Japan and 50,000 more “overseas.”

Fortunately for Toyota, its manufacturing footprint is large enough in at least one overseas market to support the production of that many more vehicles.

Toyota plans to build 50,000 fewer vehicles in Japan this year.

Image source&colon; Bloomberg/Getty Images

Toyota is one of the U.S. largest auto manufacturers

The U.S. claims that its trade partners are taking advantage of the country, which is why there is a 25% tax on auto imports. But the reality is that Japanese automakers have been great for U.S. consumers and workers.

The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) says its members have spent $4.6 billion on research and development in the U.S.

Between April 2024 and March 2025, Toyota alone built 1.96 million units in the U.S.

For comparison, General Motors, the country’s largest automaker, says it needs to invest $4 billion over the next two years to increase its U.S. production to 2 million annually.

But despite the added costs and reduced margins from producing more cars overseas, Toyota is making a pricing decision on one of its flagship products, which its U.S. fans will love.

Toyota to raise prices on the 2026 Camry, but only slightly

Car dealerships are looking to get rid of 2025 inventory in August as the 2026 models start to arrive in September and October.

So, pricing data for the next crop of cars is starting to roll in, and Toyota fans thinking about their next sedan purchase are getting good news.

The starting MSRP for the base LE trim 2026 Toyota Camry will be $29,000, a $300 or 1.05% increase from last year’s model, according to Cars Direct.

Percentage-wise, the base trim model is seeing the largest price increase, but the rest of the Camry lineup will also see a $300 increase.

The 2026 Camry SE will start at $31,300, while the XLE will cost $34,000.

According to Cars Direct, the top line 1.05% increase is much better than the average increase for other brands, which has hovered around 3%.

Japanese automakers build, and sell, a lot of cars in the U.S.

Japanese autos are extremely important to Japan’s economy, and President Donald Trump has used this fact in negotiations.

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“They won’t take our cars, and yet we take millions and millions of their cars into the United States. It’s not fair, and I explained that to Japan, and they understand it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”

But, Honda, Subaru, Nissan, Mazda, and Toyota combined employed nearly 75,000 manufacturing employees in the U.S. last year.

Last year, Japanese auto manufacturers produced 3.28 million vehicles in the U.S.