Toyota has announced that its estimated group European sales in the first half of 2005 totalled 514,569 units.
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Speaking in London at a lunch for journalists Dr Takis Athanasopoulos, Executive Vice-President Toyota Motor Europe, said that the figure represents a 3% increase on last year and ‘puts us well on our way to meet our own 2010 target of 1.2 million sales’.
Competition in the European car market has intensified this year against a backdrop of sluggish sales and weak consumer demand in several markets. The latest estimates from JD Power-LMC put first half 2005 new car sales in Europe flat over year-ago levels, with margin squeezing customer incentives playing a key role for some carmakers.
Dr Athanasopoulos has previously said that the carmaker aims to sell 980,000 units in Europe this year without resort to incentives. That target was reiterated again yesterday, with the company looking for a product-led boost from a raft of new models including the Toyota AYGO, Lexus GS, RX400 hybrid, diesel Avensis and upcoming new Lexus IS.
In 2004, Toyota sold over 916,000 vehicles in Europe – up 81,000 on 2003 and constituting the company’s eighth consecutive record year of sales in Europe.
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By GlobalDataDr Athanasopoulos also highlighted increased local production by Toyota in Europe.
“Our local production increased by 25% [in 2004, over 2003] to 583,000 units. Local production now represents 58% of all Toyota cars sold across Europe.”
“Likewise, our local component procurement ratio has been kept at an average of over 80%,” he said.
“In the financial year ending March 2005, Toyota’s consolidated operating income from the European segment exceeded 100 billion yen (equivalent to around 807 million euro) for the first time – an increase of nearly 50% from the previous year,” Dr Athanasopolous added.
Mr Shinichi Sasaki, the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Toyota Motor Europe, outlined Toyota’s plans to expand European production further.
“We are increasing capacity at our European plants in the UK, France, Turkey and Poland. Also 100,000 new Toyota AYGOs each year will come out of the joint venture with PSA in the Czech Republic.
“For 2005, we plan to increase our local production to 606,000 vehicles, 511,000 engines – this includes our new range of clean power diesel engines produced at our Polish engine plant – and 306,000 transmissions in Europe,” Mr Sasaki said.
“We are about to start constructing a new plant in St. Petersburg with an initial production plan of 20,000 Camry units from 2007.”
He also pointed out that Toyota’s UK manufacturing operation at Burnaston in Derbyshire plays a key role, with capacity up to 285,000 cars per year, from 220,000.
The UK has also been chosen by Toyota as the site for a new £11.2 million European production training facility to be opened in January at Burnaston.
