Toyota appears poised to shatter a statistical milestone next year and claim 10%
of the US market, 42 years after selling its first car there, Automotive News
said.
Toyota and Lexus combined achieved 10.2% of US light-vehicle sales in November,
lifting Toyota Motor Sales USA’s share for the year to 9.2%. If that rate
holds this month, 2000 will mark the first time Toyota Motor passes the 9% mark.
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The newspaper said that industry analysts expect the company to top 10% next
year as Toyota outperforms its rivals while industry sales soften.
In November, Toyota Motor sales rose 4.6%, while the US industry fell 3.4%.
Toyota’s single-month share topped 10% one other time this year, in January,
at 10.6%.
Automotive News said that Jim Press, executive vice president of Toyota Motor
Sales, last week downplayed Toyota’s market share climb. He shrugged off
this year’s gains to some new products — such as the large Sequoia
sport utility.
"Those vehicles allowed us to have increased share at a time the industry
was declining," Press said. "Only because we had new products do we
show an increase."
Despite the recent sales slump, industry sales are still up 3.9% this year.
Toyota’s sales, though, have jumped 9.7%.
More new Toyotas go on sale in the US in 2001. In the spring, the company will
begin selling the Highlander, a Toyota version of the highly successful Lexus
RX 300 sport wagon. Next fall, Toyota introduces a redesigned Camry, the nation’s
best-selling car.
Press said he expects Toyota’s share to stabilize at about 10%, but he shied
from making projections beyond that.
Before he took command of the company in early 1999, though, Press was less
circumspect. He boldly predicted sales of 1.5 million units in 2000. And the
company will pass that mark this month.
"We missed it," he joked to Automotive News last week. "We were
a little bit more than that."
Analysts interviewed by the newspaper cited several reasons why Toyota can
hold 10% next year: it has a long history of consistent growth, even in down
years; new high-volume trucks are entering the model range and the US market
continues to swing to trucks; the Toyota and Lexus brands are entering several
new segments not targeted by Asian automakers (the Sequoia, for example, should
allow Toyota to grow without cannibalizing sales from existing sport-utilities);
and North American plants are slated for production increases as new plants,
such as the Sequoia plant in Princeton, Indiana, come on stream.
Wes Brown, an analyst with NexTrend in Thousand Oaks, California, predicts
Toyota will hit 10% exactly next year: "I see their sales going up minimally
next year but in a market that drops 1 million units," he said. "To
be flat in that sort of market means gaining share."
Brown expects Toyota’s gains to come primarily at the expense of the Big
Three, Automotive News said.
