A sales recovery is underway at Toyota, but not up to previous record levels.
Toyota Motor Corp. said in Japan today that it expected strong sales in Asia to cause Toyota’s second straight year of sales growth in 2011, tallying 7.7 million vehicles, up 3% from 2010.
The leading Japanese automaker also said that in 2010 its Asian sales would exceed U.S. sales for the first time.
Still, the projected 7.7 million vehicles would be well below Toyota’s global sales peak in 2007 of a record 8.42 million units. Toyota’s worldwide sales declined in 2008 and 2009 because of the Global Great Recession. The mildly optimistic announcement came one day after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration levied $32.425 million in civil penalties against TMC, as the result of two Department of Transportation Investigations into safety defects. The additional penalties are on top of a previous fine of more than $16 million for the way the Japanese company handled safety recalls after initially denying safety defects existed.
Toyota in Asia will surpass the U.S. for the first time this year as recall woes hurt sales.
Toyota’s U.S. sales declined in November – alone among major automakers – and the beleaguered U.S. sales arm could be displaced by Ford Motor Company for the Number Two sales spot, after General Motors, which is clearly going to be Number One, when 2010 results are available.
Toyota’s Japanese sales are expected to drop another 17% to 1.3 million units next year, after the elimination of huge government sales incentives for hybrid vehicles. Toyota will still make more than 3 million units in Japan in 2011, making it vulnerable to a strengthening Yen, currently at 82 to the U.S. dollar.
