Toyota Forecasts 12 Million Sold Cars in China

Recently crowned the world's number one manufacturer, Toyota is quite optimistic when it comes to 2009 sales, in spite of the gloomy predictions made by auto industry analysts around the world. Specifically, the Japanese manufacturer expects to see approximately 12 million cars sold in China this year, Etsuo Hattori, the Japanese automaker's chief representative for China said according to gasgoo.com.

Because the whole topic is a bit ambiguous, Toyota expects units sold by all automakers present in China to total 12 million and, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), this is quite a possible scenario: no less than 6 million vehicles were sold in the country in the first half of this year.

Specifically, the Japanese manufacturer delivered a total of 284,000 vehicles from January to June which makes China the most important market for Toyota, Hattori added.

On the other hand, sales are going down in Europe, with Toyota reporting new car sales decrease of 26 percent or 452,350 units in the first half of the year, compared to the same period of 2008. Nevertheless, this doesn't stop Toyota from emphasizing its high hopes for this year, especially when it comes to the hybrid lineup which is expected to bring a boost in new car deliveries.

"We expect our hybrid mix to strengthen, thanks to a strong order bank for the new generation RX 450h, which was launched in May with best-in-class CO2 of just 148 g/km. This should help to improve sales performance moving into the second half," said Andy Pfeiffenberger, Lexus Europe vice president added.