Toyota may be on a roll in overseas markets but sales at home in Japan are expected to drop in calendar 2006, sinking below year-before levels for three years in a row.
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Company president Katsuaki Watanabe told a news conference that sales, excluding minivehicles, will likely fall short of 3.93m units posted in the previous year, although Toyota had initially expected this year’s sales to come to 4.05m units, Kyodo News reported.
In sharp contrast, sales of minivehicles with engine displacement of up to 660 cc are expected to total more than 2m units, up from some 1.9m units in 2005.
Watanabe also expressed concern over an increase in the percentage of minivehicles providing slim profit margins to automakers due to their lower prices.
”Although the overall sales of automobiles including minivehicles are likely to remain almost unchanged from the previous year, the component percentages in the overall automobile sales have changed,” he said, according to the news agency.
