Toyota Motor on Wednesday said it expects to cut global vehicle production 28% this year as the economic downturn continues to bite.
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This means output will fall to 6.68m vehicles from 9.24m in 2008 while sales are expected to drop 18% to 7.34m vehicles. The figures include the Toyota and Lexus brands as well as the company’s Daihatsu small car and Hino truck subsidiaries.
Toyota, which can build 10m vehicles annually worldwide, has seen sales fall in its key markets of Japan, Europe and North America to their lowest volumes in some 30 years.
Last week it reported its first full fiscal year loss for 71 years, a worse than expected JPY461bn (US$4.7bn) for the year ended 31 March, down from the previous year’s profit of JPY2.27 trillion. The loss exceeded the JPY400 bn predicted by analysts.
Toyota does not expect any improvement in the current fiscal year and has predicted the operating loss will almost double in 2009/10 to JPY850bn.
