Toyota’s Plans for China
Toyota, on course to overtake General Motors (GM) as the world's biggest automaker, is well behind in the world's fastest-growing market, where GM is thriving; China.
Toyota Motor Corp., a relative latecomer to China, has a paltry 3.5 percent of the market, with 179,000 vehicles sold last year. That puts it well behind top foreign automaker General Motors Corp., which captured 11 percent of the market last year with 665,390 units sold, and Volkswagen AG of Germany, the No. 2 foreign maker.
With China's ever-improving economy and swelling middle class, the auto market grew 30% last year to 5.7 million vehicle sales, according to local industry figures, just behind Japan's 5.8 million. U.S. auto sales totaled 17.4 million last year.
Toyota first started exporting Crowns to China in 1964, and began nurturing partnerships with Chinese vehicle makers as early as the late 1970s, but then turned its attention to the U.S. and European markets.
The company has invested a total of 215 billion yen ($1.94 billion) since 1998 in China and now has a dozen plants making parts and assembling vehicles.
To help contain costs, Toyota plans to buy most parts for the Camry locally, with half coming from the region near Guangzhou. Its engine plant there is already exporting engines for Camrys built in Japan and the U.S.
Toyota eyes 8th North American plant
Toyota Motor Corp. is considering building its eighth North American factory in a southern U.S. state, a news report said.
Toyota, which has seen surging sales in the U.S., is looking at sites in Texas and other southern states for the plant, which may start production in 2009, Kyodo News agency reported Friday, citing anonymous company sources.
The factory will have an annual production capacity of about 200,000 vehicles, and will likely manufacture sport utility vehicles and other models, Kyodo said.
With sales booming around the world, Toyota is on pace to overtake General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker.
Its models' reputation for good mileage has helped Toyota snatch U.S. market share away from struggling GM and Ford Motor Co. at a time when gas prices are soaring.
Toyota has said it wants to expand car production in the United States, such as plans to make up to 100,000 Camrys a year at a Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana. (AP)
Toyota to boost global output capacity to over 10 million vehicles by 2010
Toyota Motor Corp has finalized a plan to boost its global output capacity to over 10 million vehicles a year by 2010, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported citing company sources.
It plans to build 10 new assembly plants in the US, China, India, Europe and Russia to achieve its goal, the report said.
Over the next five years, Toyota plans to raise its total output capacity by 3 million vehicles from its present capacity of 7.36 million, the report said.