How long the upward sales trend for Toyota can continue remains to be seen. Earlier this week Toyota Motor Europe said that production will be disrupted and slowed at 5 European plants.
Toyota’s Aygo, Auris, RAV4 and Land Cruiser all posted gains. The Toyota Verso-S and Lexus CT 200h also made relatively strong debuts in the first quarter of 2011 based on preliminary numbers.
From January to February demand for new cars in the 27 countries that comprise the EU remained level (-0.3%) compared to the first two months of last year. A majority of smaller European markets performed better then during the same period a year ago – though three of the five largest faced double-digit downturns.
The UK shrank by 10.2%, Italy by 20.5% and Spain by 25.8%. Poland (-4.2%), Portugal (-11.0%) and Greece (-58.5%) also saw their markets contract. Elsewhere, growth ranged from 1.9% in Luxembourg to 114.5% in Estonia.
“Toyota’s strong sales trend in Europe continues to accelerate in 2011 as market conditions improve across the continent,” said Miguel Fonseca, TME Vice President for Sales.
How long the upward sales trend for Toyota can continue remains to be seen. Earlier this week Toyota Motor Europe said that production at 5 European plants will be stopped for several days in late April and early May. The Toyota European plants will then run at a reduced volume during the month of May in order to manage available parts supply, following the 11 March 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announced last week that production at its factories in Japan will restart from 18 April until 27 April at 50% of normal pace. Toyota also announced production disruptions at its North American plants.
(See Toyota to Resume Vehicle Production at All Japan Plants; Toyota Cuts North American Car and Truck Production; Letter from Japan: Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan ongoing Earthquake and Tsunami Coverage)
