Toyota Motor Europe is sticking with its 790,000-unit forecast for 2003 despite the Iraq situation and slightly weaker European growth than foreseen when the target was set in September-October last year, senior vice-president for sales Thierry Dombreval told just-auto.com in an interview.
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The company has also reviewed European production capacity and believes it could get an extra 200,000 units a year from existing facilities, he added, writes deputy editor Graeme Roberts.
“The first quarter has been positive for us and we expect to maintain 790,000 in a slightly weaker economy because we have made significant progress in the major five European markets – UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain,” Dombreval said. “The Yaris [Vitz/Echo] continues to perform very well thanks to the new diesel – and the whole range has just been updated. The new Avensis does not show in the first quarter figures but we think it will be very significant, particularly in the second half.
“The RAV4 continues to go from strength to strength and the [newly redesigned] Landcruiser has doubled last year’s volume.
“So we think our overall strength allows us to maintain the 790,000 forecast.
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By GlobalData“Eight hundred thousand is not realistic for 2003 unless the industry recovers,” Dombreval added.
Aside from Spain, where sales grew 21.9% in 2002, TME took over its distributor during the year and, in March this year, outsold local manufacturer Nissan for the first time ever, Russia also stands out in Dombreval’s mind as a strong performing market.
Sales almost doubled, “the brand image there is terrific, the dealer network is growing in size and strength and we are very happy with the Russian business,” he said.
Control of Russian operations will be officially transferred to TME on July 1, Dombreval noted.
He revealed that, at a recent meeting of European distributors in Japan, head office was asked to allow expansion of both European production – on top of already announced developments in the Czech Republic (100,000 small cars annually in a joint project with PSA) and Poland (engine and gearbox production) – and research and development activities “to deliver the medium and long-term volumes”.
Dombreval said: “The preferred route so far is to look at strengthening existing facilities.” He acknowledged that meant more shifts in UK and France and said that TME was looking at “significant extra potential” in terms of both product and manufacturing. “So far, there isn’t a new factory” in mind, he stressed.
“Including Turkey, we’re not far from an extra 200,000 [units]”, Dombreval said.
That excludes the extra 100,000 small cars due to start rolling out of the Czech Republic plant from 2005.
