Toyota Motor Corp, Honda Motor Co and two other Japanese carmakers sold a combined 464,372 vehicles in the U.S. market in April, up 11.8 percent from a year earlier, helped by buying before prices rise due to an additional tariff on imported cars, industry data showed.

U.S. President Donald Trump implemented an additional tariff of 25 percent on cars produced outside the United States on April 3. Subaru Corp and Mazda Motor Corp export about 50 percent and 70 percent of their vehicles sold in the U.S. market from Japan, respectively, while Toyota imports over 20 percent and Honda less than 1 percent from their home country. Toyota, Honda and Mazda also source vehicles for the U.S. market from other countries.

Customers expecting vehicle prices to rise to reflect the higher tariff rushed to buy the automakers' hybrid and sport-utility vehicles in particular, the companies said. The auto market outlook remains grim as the last-minute buying will likely eat into future demand.

Toyota's sales in the world's second-largest auto market rose 10.0 percent to 233,045 vehicles, led by solid demand for the Camry hybrid model.

Honda sold 137,656 vehicles, up 18.1 percent, driven by the CR-V hybrid SUV model and Subaru lifted sales 0.3 percent to 56,011 vehicles on firm demand for the Crosstrek SUV model. Mazda's sales jumped 21.0 percent to 37,660 vehicles on strong sales of the CX-90 model.