Toyota China Sales Double, Out Paces Ford and VW

SHANGHAI October 12, 2006; Fang Yan writing for Reuters reported that Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. more than doubled its vehicle sales in China in this year's first nine months, outpacing rivals and the market thanks to accelerated expansion in the world's second largest auto arena.

The relative latecomer to China moved 203,000 vehicles out of showrooms from January to September -- filling nearly three quarters of its 2006 sales target of 278,000 units, a company executive told Reuters on Thursday.

That outperformed even the 105.5 percent growth in nine-month sales reported by Ford Motor Co. this week -- another latecomer in a hotly contested market now dominated by General Motors Corp. and Volkswagen A.G.

Toyota's sales came to 33,000 units in September alone, up 188 percent from the same period in 2005, helped in part by the introduction of its Chinese-built Camry sedan -- the best-selling car in the United States in eight of the past nine years.

"At this speed, Toyota could topple GM as the top foreign auto seller in China as early as in 2008," said Zhang Xin, a senior industry analyst with Guotai Junan Securities.

The Detroit giant, which sold 453,832 vehicles in China in the first half of 2006, has not released results for the first three quarters.

Ford sold 114,685 units in China in the same period, while Volkswagen moved 524,558 vehicles, up 28.7 percent from a year earlier.

Toyota, the world's second-largest auto maker, also vastly outshone a 34 percent gain in China's overall passenger car market, where 455,539 units were sold from January to September, according to figures provided by a Shanghai auto association.

That figure encompassed cars as well as sport utility vehicles and MPVs. Official data has yet to be released.

RAMPING UP CAPACITY

Globally, Toyota is expected to overtake GM as the world's number one player soon.

While advancing aggressively in North America, Toyota is also expanding at break-neck speed in China to catch up with Japanese rivals Honda Motor Co. Ltd. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.

Analysts say a high oil price environment was helping Toyota -- which like other Japanese auto makers is perceived to produce more fuel-efficient cars -- in China, but new models were helping also.

In May, the maker of the Reiz, Crown and Vios rolled out its first Chinese-made Camry at a new plant in the southern city of Guangzhou, hoping to grab customers from competing brands such as Honda's Accord.

A company spokeswoman said a month later that they would double the Camry capacity at the facility to 200,000 units per year to keep pace with strong demand.

Toyota's capacity in China, including the Guangzhou factory, stood at about 342,000 units. It had applied for approval to build an additional 200,000 units capacity in the northern port city of Tianjin, near Beijing.