Guangzhou Toyota keeps 210,000-unit sales goal

Shanghai, October 30 (Gasgoo.com) Recently at the Yaris fuel-efficiency match, Guangzhou Toyota's vice general manager Hu Su said that the joint venture will not give up the 2008 sales target of 210,000 units until the last minute of the year despite the huge pressure, reported Beijing Times today.

Hu said that in the first nine months a total of 108,000 Camry cars made by Guangzhou Toyota were registered for license plates, ranking No. 1 among mid- to high-end cars sold in China during that period, but meanwhile Yaris had only sold 14,370 units, which poses great pressure to the year's total sales target.

At the beginning of this year, the company expected its sales to grow by 20% to 210,000 units, but judging by the current sales figures, only a 5% growth is possible. 

In the fourth quarter the dealers of Guangzhou Toyota are required to make great efforts to fulfill their sales quotas for the year. The company expects the final few months to see a reviving market and therefore will not give up the sales target of 210,000 vehicles until the last minute of the year. Everything is going according to plan, Hu Su said.

Guangdong Toyota will extend a second production line in mid-2009, with an initial annual capacity of 120,000 units. It is another tough task for the company to relieve the problem of over-capacity of production against the background of low demand in the auto market.

The joint venture was reported to ignite a price war among Chinese automakers when it scaled down the prices of some models as the Chinese anti-monopoly law was issued earlier this year. But the company responded that its price cuts were not against the law and its new Camry's price has been stable in the market.