Hino Motor Aims To Sell 150,000 Autos Globally In 2010

TOKYO January 22, 2003; Dow Jones is reporting that Hino Motors Ltd., a major Japanese truck maker, aims to more than double its global sales to over 150,000 trucks and buses in 2010 from the targeted 65,400 units in 2003, the company's top executive said Wednesday.

"It's difficult for us to expand our business much further in the home market when manufacturers are increasingly moving their production bases abroad...Even so, we still expect global demand to increase, centering on China and the rest of Asia," Hino Motors President Tadaaki Jagawa told a news conference.

In 2010, Hino, in which Toyota Motor Corp. (TM or 7203) holds a 50.1% stake, expects its Japan sales to amount 40,000-60,000 vehicles, compared with targeted 39,000 units in 2003.

Overseas, Hino expects to sell 20,000-30,000 vehicles in China and 30,000-40, 000 units in the rest of Asia in 2010. It targets sales of 20,000-30,000 units in the U.S. in that same year.

Hino is studying a plan to make large Hino-brand trucks in China under an agreement Toyota formed last year with China's FAW Group Corp. to cooperate on production and sales of a broad variety of vehicles in China.

In response to increasing demand for more environmentally friendly vehicles, Hino will launch a new type of hybrid trucks later this year, of which the company aims to sell 100 units in the fiscal year ending March 2004, Hino Motors Senior Managing Director Takayuki Suzuki said.

Taking advantage of government incentives for the more environmentally friendly vehicle, Hino aims to increase sales of the new hybrid truck to 500 units in the fiscal year ending March 2005, he said.