Toyota Motor's president and CEO, Akio Toyota, apologized March 1 to customers in China, the company's fast-growing major market. Toyoda was grilled by angry U.S. lawmakers in Washington, but experienced no trouble in Beijing. Toyota's sales target for the Chinese market was still 800,000 units.
Akio Toyoda, together with high executives with FAW Toyota, expressed to the public what the Chinese market means to Toyota at the press conference.
"Our unchanged sales target proves that Toyota was confident that the Chinese market won't be impacted by the recall crisis," explained an official with FAW Toyota, a joint venture set up by Toyota and China First Automobile Works (FAW).
From his point of view, Akio Toyoda's visit to China was highly symbolic.
FAW Toyota declared that its RAV4 models with faulty accelerator pedals will be recalled on January 28, 2010, one week after Toyota recalled 2.3 million vehicles in the US. The recall started one month after FAW Toyota's declaration.
Affected by the recall crisis, Toyota sales in its traditional market including the U.S. and the EU are falling. In China, one of the company's most important overseas markets, the effect of Akio Toyoda's apology is still unknown.
