Toyota not chasing 15 percent global market share

[August 07, 2009]  TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota under its new president will no longer chase global market share and other numerical targets, even as it hopes to sell more cars in emerging markets, a company executive said Friday.

Under previous presidents, Toyota Motor Corp. had set a goal of reaching 15 percent global market share in global vehicle sales sometime after 2010. Until last year's financial crisis, which sent sales crashing, it had been steadily expanding production toward that goal.

The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he spoke to select reporters, said the automaker will still use numbers in their business plans, but "the vision" had changed under President Akio Toyoda.

Toyoda, who took office in June, wasn't comfortable with racing toward numbers, and instead wanted to return to the old-fashioned "Toyota Way" of understanding customer needs and developing products to fill them, the executive said.

"Our president doesn't like numbers or documents," he said.

But the executive made clear Toyota remains bullish on sales, especially in emerging markets, which now make up half of the global auto market.

A recovery in the U.S. auto market must come with bigger sales in China, South America, the Middle East and other emerging markets to work as the "two engines" of growth for a recovery, he said.

Toyota is hoping to sell more than 2 million vehicles in emerging markets this year, which will make up about a third of its overall vehicle sales, the executive said.

Earlier this week, Toyota raised its vehicle sales forecast for the fiscal year through March 2010, to 6.6 million vehicles from its initial forecast for 6.5 million vehicles.

The appointment of Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, has been viewed as a morale boost for workers, dealers and suppliers as the maker of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury car fights for a recovery.

Toyota racked up its worst loss in its seven-decade history for the fiscal year ended March, and is expecting to stay in the red for the fiscal year through March 2010.

Speaking on the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, plant in Fremont, Calif., a joint venture with U.S. automaker General Motors Corp., the executive said Toyota will make a decision by the end of August.

GM has decided to withdraw from NUMMI, but details on what to do must be worked out, he said without elaborating.

[Associated Press; By YURI KAGEYAMA]

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