Toyota '08 China sales up 17% to 585,000 units

Shanghai, January 12 (Gasgoo.com) Toyota Motor Corp said it sold 585,000 vehicles in China in 2008, up 17% from a year earlier, Reuters reported today, citing the top Japanese automaker's brief statement. But the sales still fell short Toyota's reduced 2008 sales target of 600,000 units in the China market.

The sales compared with Honda Motor's 11.7% rise in vehicle sales growth in China to 473,297 units in 2008. Sales of Volkswagen in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau rose 12.5% to 1.02 million vehicles, while General Motors' sales rose 6.1% to 1.09 million vehicles in the world's second largest auto market.

"The market itself is slowing down and our sales target may not be achieved by the year end," said Jiang Jizhe, deputy general manager of GAC Toyota Motor Co, a joint venture between Guangzhou Auto and Toyota Motor, two weeks ago.

FAW Toyota, another Toyota venture in China, sold about 365,700 passenger vehicles last year, according to the latest data of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

In mid-November, Toyota Motor Corp cut its 2008 sales target in China by 100,000 units to 600,000 vehicles, but now this revised goal is still left unfulfilled.