Toyota's European sales dropped 18 percent in the the first nine months in the EU, EFTA and UK, according to ACEA figures, in a total market that fell 29 percent.
Harrison described October as "an incredible month for us" as the European market recovered, and buyers were able to take delivery of the delayed replacement for the Yaris small car.
"Things have been better than we thought," he said. "The V-shape recovery was pretty textbook and outside China probably one of the better V-shapes across all the regions globally."
Toyota now predicts it will sell 970,000 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in its European region, which includes Russia, through 2020, against its estimate of 920,000 when the COVID-19 pandemic first struck.
The company's original plan was to hit 1.1 million sales this year, up from 1.09 million last year.
Toyota gained a boost in the second quarter from the Yaris, with orders for the model in September "marking an all-time record month for any Toyota model," the brand said in a release.
Orders for the hybrid version of the Yaris were running at 80 percent, versus around 50 percent to 55 percent for the previous generation car, Harrison said.
Sales of the Yaris were hit when Toyota was forced to shut its Valenciennes, France, plant in March due to the pandemic before it had completed the build of the outgoing model.
"We got caught out with Yaris transition in we committed to the build-out before we fully understood the impact and the delay to the start of the new generation," Harrison said.
Harrison said Toyota had suffered less from the collapse in the market for daily rental vehicles.
"As a brand so we are not very reliant on that channel, we are much more focused on private channel and that has been the most robust," he said.
The company has not had to increase incentives to boost sales in the region. "Probably the opposite. Our variable sales expense has been coming down year on year as product power has improved. Hybrid was an element of that," he said.
