Toyota Sees Fast Growth in China Sales

[Guest Josh]

BEIJING, Nov 29 Asia Pulse - Japan's top car maker Toyota Motor Corp has predicted its sales in China will grow by more than 50 per cent this year and remain on a fast track next year. The group expects to sell 179,000 vehicles in China this year, up 54 per cent from 2004, said Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's executive vice-president and board member. "Our sales in China will outpace the growth of China's entire car market significantly next year," Inaba said. He predicted the car market in China would expand by more than 20 per cent in 2006 from this year. According to plans revealed by Toyota's two Chinese ventures, the group's sales in China will exceed 250,000 vehicles next year. Toyota's venture with First Automotive Works Corp (FAW), China's biggest vehicle manufacturer, aims to sell 200,000 vehicles in 2006, up from more than 150,000 units expected this year. Toyota's venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group, China's No 6 carmaker, plans to sell 50,000 to 60,000 units of the new Camry. The venture, which now has an annual production capacity of 100,000 units, will launch the new car in June. Toyota, which is expected to outstrip General Motors (GM) as the world's biggest automaker next year, still lags behind many global rivals in China in terms of sales, such as Volkswagen, Honda and Hyundai. Asked when Toyota will surpass GM in China, Inaba said: "That is a long-distance race and we are only in the first round of it." GM and Volkswagen are currently the top two foreign car manufacturers in China. In the first half of this year, GM sold 308,722 vehicles in China, while Volkswagen sold 262,198 models. Toyota aims to lift its market share in China to 10 per cent by 2010 from the 3 per cent it has now. Some analysts said the firm could do well. "Compared with its rivals, Toyota has many more products that are suitable for the Chinese market, such as the Reiz and the new Camry," said Jia Xinguang with the China Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Corp. Toyota is also one of the world's most profitable car makers and can boost sales by cutting costs, Jia said. "But it appears not in haste to do so. It is apparently seeking a good balance between profitability and market share in China as it is doing in the world's other major markets," he said. Industry statistics show the total sales of made-in-China cars grew by 11 per cent year-on-year to 4.59 million units in the first 10 months of this year. (XIC)

[Newbiewar]

I cant believe the chinese are accually going to buy the japanese products

[cmattson]

Hmm.. imagine that. Toyota's already jumped into the Chinese market. GM's made even better inroads there. VW's been there for eternity. Honda last to the party? Who'd have thought? It's not like they were last to make a V6 sedan or a minivan or a suv or a pickup or a V8. What? Oh, yeah->they were. My bad. Nevermind. Let's here it for Honda's consistency! Edited November 29, 2005 by cmattson

[thegriffon]

Toyota has been in China for decades, and faces strong competition from Hyundai as well as GM and Volkswagen. Being Japanese is still a problem for Toyota in China and unlike Chevrolet or Buick they don't have a unified marketing and dealer network.

[Guest carpetbagger]

Hmm.. imagine that.  Toyota's already jumped into the Chinese market.  GM's made even better inroads there.  VW's been there for eternity.  Honda last to the party?  Who'd have thought?  It's not like they were last to make a V6 sedan or a  minivan or a suv or a pickup or a V8.  What?  Oh, yeah->they were.  My bad.  Nevermind.  Let's here it for Honda's consistency!

[post="50132"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

honda already has a plant there

lets hear it for your hamfaced stupidity :CG_all:

[cmattson]

Perhaps I should have made myself clearer. I was implying that Honda was last-to-the-party to realize the potential of the Chinese market - not that Honda was absent from the market.

Lets here it for politeness
:CG_all:

[andy82471]

I don't think politics has anything to do with car buying decisions. The Chinese are smart people. Like most Americans they will want something that is dependable, refined, and fuel efficient. So it isnt entirely surprising that TOYOTA would do as well in China as they are doing here. Besides, TOYOTA has all the money in the world to build new plants all over the world unlike GM.

[FUTURE_OF_GM]

[quote]Asked when Toyota will surpass GM in China, Inaba said: "That is a long-distance race and we are only in the first round of it."[/quote]

WHEN!?!?!?

I guess it's a given then?????

[quote]I cant believe the chinese are accually going to buy the japanese products[/quote]

Why not???? After all, we buy german and japanese products by the bushel, despite their war crimes against us...

Besides, Toyota is perfect, remember? I'm sure their PR department has been working the same miracles (Makes me wonder) there that they have here.

[quote]Toyota has been in China for decades, and faces strong competition from Hyundai as well as GM and Volkswagen. Being Japanese is still a problem for Toyota in China and unlike Chevrolet or Buick they don't have a unified marketing and dealer network.[/quote]

GOOD!

It's about damn time they didn't get the world HANDED to them like they have everywhere else, ESPECIALLY in the U.S. whilst we can't even export a significant volume of cars into their country.

[quote]I don't think politics has anything to do with car buying decisions.[/quote]

Although it should... Not a major influence but somewhat of a security influence.

[quote]The Chinese are smart people. Like most Americans[/quote]

Sure, the Chinese are smart people for protecting their industry UNlike most americans, whose intelligence and logic I often question.

[quote]Besides, TOYOTA has all the money in the world to build new plants all over the world unlike GM.[/quote]

True that.

[regfootball]

I cant believe the chinese are accually going to buy the japanese products

[post="49943"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

maybe japan is buying them off too

[Guest gmrebirth]

GOOD!

It's about damn time they didn't get the world HANDED to them like they have everywhere else, ESPECIALLY in the U.S. whilst we can't even export a significant volume of cars into their country.

Handed to them? Can you back up this statement in any way? Ever think that Toyota EARNED their success?

I can say the same about GM being "handed" quality after all those years of crappy cars made by GM which burned countless customers.

You wanna complain about unfair trade practices? Go complain to the US government, NOT to Toyota.

What next, are fanatics like you going to start claiming Toyota is ruining America :rolleyes: ? Edited December 1, 2005 by gmrebirth

[Flybrian]

I don't think politics has anything to do with car buying decisions. The Chinese are smart people. Like most Americans they will want something that is dependable, refined, and fuel efficient. So it isnt entirely surprising that TOYOTA would do as well in China as they are doing here. Besides, TOYOTA has all the money in the world to build new plants all over the world unlike GM.

[post="50631"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

The common Chinese experience with Japan is so far and away different than anything we in the West can imagine that I would find it surprising for Chinese in general to not have qualms about buying a Japanese car. In fact, I would've expected an Aparthied-like boycott by the Chinese as a reasonable reaction to a major influx of Japanese goods at some point in the past, either on part of the government or the people at large.

[Teh Ricer Civic!]

WOA... dude the GOVERNMENTS of japan and Germany in WW2 are who committed the crimes against the US not the people! they were merely pawns of the government. Using your logic in japan and germany they should not buy are products because we beat them! thats some messed up logic.

[andy82471]

The common Chinese experience with Japan is so far and away different than anything we in the West can imagine that I would find it surprising for Chinese in general to not have qualms about buying a Japanese car. In fact, I would've expected an Aparthied-like boycott by the Chinese as a reasonable reaction to a major influx of Japanese goods at some point in the past, either on part of the government or the people at large.

[post="53021"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post]

I know two Jewish doctors whose parents were concentration camp survivors drive German cars. One drives a 97 S600 and the other drives a 04 Audi A6. So at some point you have to move on and bury your grudge. Besides there aren't many people alive who remember the 1930s anyway. The world is a very different place in 2005. The point I was trying to make is that most people look for a dependable, fuel efficient, refined cars and are less concerned about the car's country of origin. ( Just like in this country)

[Flybrian]

WOA... dude the GOVERNMENTS of japan and Germany in WW2 are who committed the crimes against the US not the people! they were merely pawns of the government. Using your logic in japan and germany they should not buy are products because we beat them! thats some messed up logic.

That's not my logic. See below.

I think the difference that separates the Chinese mentality from those victims of the European Holocaust is that there was at least in part some form of closure and acceptance on part of the German government's actions during WWII. There was never a Far East counterpart to the Nurenburg trials and very little to date in terms of admission of guilt. The Japanese government still takes a official stance somewhere in between coy acknowledgement that bad things did happen in China and Korea and total outright denial. German textbooks have sections dedicated to the Holocaust; Japanese textbooks do not and those Japanese publishers that do include descriptions of Imperial Japanese actions in Manchuria and the like either have those passages striken by the government or have an adaptation rate of less than 1% in Japanese schools.

Its nothing against the cars themselves as consumer goods, rather the government that continues to ignore their past actions hoping the memory will fade away as survivors die. If cars and other imports from Japan can be seen as tools through which to affect change, I'm all for it. If the Chinese government one day decides to boycott Japanese imports until more meaningful acknowledgement is given, then I'm all for it.

Again, its against old guard facets of the government, not the Japanese people, who by the way also have the right to know and learn from their nation's mistakes. As Americans, we learned about our brutality against the native people of this continent. Germans learned about their Holocaust. Why should the Japanese government be special and avoid atoning for their sins?