Gojirra99
01-11-08, 11:44 AM
Friday, January 11, 2008
Toyota's '07 sales may top GM's
Japanese company sells 9.37M vehicles, near the Detroit automaker's estimate of about 9.3M.
Detroit News staff and wire reports
TOKYO -- Toyota said Thursday that it sold 9.37 million cars and trucks worldwide in 2007, which may have been enough to put it ahead of General Motors in the race for the "world's biggest automaker," a title GM has held for 76 years.
Toyota's worldwide sales increase of 6 percent in 2007 was helped by strong growth in overseas markets, the Japanese automaker said Thursday. It forecast a further 5 percent sales rise this year to 9.85 million vehicles.
GM has not issued its 2007 sales, but the two automakers have been running neck-and-neck this year in a high-profile horse race.
GM spokesman John McDonald said the U.S. automaker would announce its full-year sales on Jan. 23. He said GM had not issued an estimate, but some media reports said the U.S. automaker had predicted its 2007 sales would be around 9.3 million.
In the first nine months of 2007, GM sold 7.06 million vehicles, narrowly ahead of Toyota's 7.05 million cars and trucks sold under the Toyota, Hino, Daihatsu, Scion and Lexus brands.
Most industry forecasters have been predicting that Toyota would overtake GM in 2007 or 2008, but Toyota executives have downplayed the importance of such a milestone.
"It's just one moment," Shoichiro Toyoda, Toyota's honorary chairman, said earlier this week. "We need to just keep working harder," said Toyoda, a member of the founding family and a former company president.
GM said last week that its factories produced 9.28 million vehicles worldwide in 2007, fewer than Toyota's 2007 production estimate of 9.51 million.
GM sold 9.1 million cars and trucks in 2006, a 1 percent decline from 2005.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said last week during an Internet chat with journalists that the U.S. automaker was focusing its attention on its restructuring plan.
"Great cars, smart marketing, growth in the emerging markets, and hopefully that will keep us on top," he said. "If not, we'll come back to work the next day and work even harder."
Both Toyota and GM are seeing lower sales in their respective home markets, but higher sales abroad, particularly in emerging markets, such as China and Russia.
Toyota said in a brief statement that its sales fell 4 percent last year in Japan but increased 10 percent abroad. It expects flat sales this year in Japan and a 7 percent increase in overseas sales.
But while Toyota is highly profitable, GM is struggling financially. It has been downsizing its U.S. operations in line with its declining market share.
GM's U.S. sales fell 6 percent last year, while Toyota's U.S. sales rose 3 percent, elevating the Japanese automaker to second place in the U.S. market ahead of Ford Motor Co.
Toyota outsells Ford on a global basis and briefly overtook GM in the first quarter of 2007. But the U.S. automaker regained the lead after outselling Toyota in the second and third quarters.
Toyota executives scaled back their 2008 U.S. sales forecasts because of economic uncertainty stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis and high gas prices. They now are expecting a slight increase of just 1 percent in a flat market.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/AUTO01/801110334/1148
Toyota's '07 sales may top GM's
Japanese company sells 9.37M vehicles, near the Detroit automaker's estimate of about 9.3M.
Detroit News staff and wire reports
TOKYO -- Toyota said Thursday that it sold 9.37 million cars and trucks worldwide in 2007, which may have been enough to put it ahead of General Motors in the race for the "world's biggest automaker," a title GM has held for 76 years.
Toyota's worldwide sales increase of 6 percent in 2007 was helped by strong growth in overseas markets, the Japanese automaker said Thursday. It forecast a further 5 percent sales rise this year to 9.85 million vehicles.
GM has not issued its 2007 sales, but the two automakers have been running neck-and-neck this year in a high-profile horse race.
GM spokesman John McDonald said the U.S. automaker would announce its full-year sales on Jan. 23. He said GM had not issued an estimate, but some media reports said the U.S. automaker had predicted its 2007 sales would be around 9.3 million.
In the first nine months of 2007, GM sold 7.06 million vehicles, narrowly ahead of Toyota's 7.05 million cars and trucks sold under the Toyota, Hino, Daihatsu, Scion and Lexus brands.
Most industry forecasters have been predicting that Toyota would overtake GM in 2007 or 2008, but Toyota executives have downplayed the importance of such a milestone.
"It's just one moment," Shoichiro Toyoda, Toyota's honorary chairman, said earlier this week. "We need to just keep working harder," said Toyoda, a member of the founding family and a former company president.
GM said last week that its factories produced 9.28 million vehicles worldwide in 2007, fewer than Toyota's 2007 production estimate of 9.51 million.
GM sold 9.1 million cars and trucks in 2006, a 1 percent decline from 2005.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said last week during an Internet chat with journalists that the U.S. automaker was focusing its attention on its restructuring plan.
"Great cars, smart marketing, growth in the emerging markets, and hopefully that will keep us on top," he said. "If not, we'll come back to work the next day and work even harder."
Both Toyota and GM are seeing lower sales in their respective home markets, but higher sales abroad, particularly in emerging markets, such as China and Russia.
Toyota said in a brief statement that its sales fell 4 percent last year in Japan but increased 10 percent abroad. It expects flat sales this year in Japan and a 7 percent increase in overseas sales.
But while Toyota is highly profitable, GM is struggling financially. It has been downsizing its U.S. operations in line with its declining market share.
GM's U.S. sales fell 6 percent last year, while Toyota's U.S. sales rose 3 percent, elevating the Japanese automaker to second place in the U.S. market ahead of Ford Motor Co.
Toyota outsells Ford on a global basis and briefly overtook GM in the first quarter of 2007. But the U.S. automaker regained the lead after outselling Toyota in the second and third quarters.
Toyota executives scaled back their 2008 U.S. sales forecasts because of economic uncertainty stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis and high gas prices. They now are expecting a slight increase of just 1 percent in a flat market.
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080111/AUTO01/801110334/1148