Toyota lifts sales target to 9.76 million vehicles

[August 03, 2012]  TOKYO (AP) -- Toyota has raised its global sales plan for this year to 9.76 million vehicles, a key part of the Japanese automaker's comeback from a disaster-struck 2011.

In February, Toyota Motor Corp. had set its sales target at 9.58 million vehicles. The new plan, announced Friday, would represent a 23 percent increase over sales in the previous year.

Like other Japanese automakers, Toyota is rebounding from the sales plunge suffered from production disruptions caused by the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan last year.

Also Friday, Toyota reported a stellar recovery in quarterly profit to 290.3 billion yen ($3.7 billion), up from 1.1 billion yen the year before as sales surged nearly 60 percent from a year earlier.

[Associated Press]

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