Toyota posted record third-quarter profits on Tuesday as growth in emerging markets helped offset a slowdown in the US, the Japanese carmaker’s biggest market.

Toyota, which just failed to knock rival General Motors off the top spot last year in terms of vehicle sales, posted a 7.5 per cent rise in third-quarter net profits to Y458.7bn ($4.3bn) on revenues of Y6,709bn, up 9.2 per cent. Takeshi Suzuki, Toyota’s senior managing director, said the third-quarter results reflected the benefits of greater geographical diversification.