Overclocker

Toyota is looking for nothing less than world domination, with a goal of 9.8 million sales worldwide in 2008. Among the many helpful tools in its arsenal: the 2008 Lexus LS 600hL (pictured).

Date posted: 09-22-2006

TOKYO — Toyota Motor has General Motors in its sights as the Japanese automaker releases its most ambitious sales and profit forecast yet.

Toyota said it now expects its global vehicle sales to climb 11 percent in 2008, from an estimated 8.85 million units this year to 9.8 million. To support that growth, the automaker is installing additional production capacity of 1.13 million units around the world over the next two years.

GM has been the world's largest automaker for 75 years; last year, it sold just under 9.2 million vehicles, a mark that may be tough for it to match in 2006. Toyota sold 8.1 million vehicles in 2005 and expects to approach 9 million units this year.

Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said much of the company's growth will come in Asia, where Toyota is developing a new low-cost car platform for emerging markets in the region. "Emerging markets offer tremendous potential for us," Watanabe said.

Toyota also confirmed that it is developing new alt-fuel vehicles to supplement its existing range of gas-electric hybrids, including new plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell models that run on hydrogen.

The company said it expects North America eventually to be its largest market, with annual sales of 3 million vehicles, while sales in the home market in Japan drop to 2.4 million units. Sales in Europe are forecast to climb to 1.3 million units.

What this means to you: Toyota has dominated the automotive sector for most of recent memory. The real question is, "How could it fail?"

Source: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...cleId=116896#2

LexFather

Note to self, buy more stock!

DriftNsc3

Good idea. I think I will do just that.

UberNoob

they better fix the transmission problem in the new camry soon
i think it will hurt their sales if they dont have it figured out by the time 2008 model comes out