Toyota cuts domestic sales forecast 28-yr low

Written by Meenaa on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Toyota Motor Corp. forecasts its domestic vehicle sales for 2009, excluding subsidiaries, will fall below 1.5 million units, sources said Monday.

By comparing year-on-year business results, this would mark the lowest sales since 1981, when 1.49 million units were sold.

The automaker is predicting a continued shrinking domestic market due to the sluggish economy and the trend of young people to shy away from owning cars, according to the sources.

Toyota’s domestic sales for the January-October period was 1.27 million units, down 4.9 percent from a year earlier. Achieving the revised target of 1.55 million units for 2008, which had already earlier been revised downward by 500,000 units in July, is proving difficult, the sources said. If the business result for 2008 falls below 1.58 million units for 2007, it will indicate the fourth consecutive year-on-year decline. In a bid to prop up demand, Toyota intends to introduce in 2009 four new models of hybrid cars, including an updated Prius. However, the severe cooling of the domestic economy will require further planning, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the global sales target for 2009 for the Toyota Motor group, including subsidiary automakers Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., has been forecast to fall below 9 million units for the first time since 2006, due to a global downtrend in the sale of new cars, the sources said.
(Nov. 18, 2008)