Toyota China Sept sales up 45% to 72,000 units

Shanghai, October 15 (Gasgoo.com) Toyota Motor Corp said today that its car sales in China last month rose 45% from a year earlier to a record monthly high of about 72,000 vehicles, Reuters reported.

In the first nine months of the year, the top Japanese automaker sold about 486,000 cars in China, up 13% year on year, a company spokesman said. "Market demand has been very strong this year especially for small cars thanks to the government's incentives. New models also helped push up our sales," he added.

Earlier this year, Toyota's China ventures rolled out revamped Vios and Yaris compact cars -- both eligible for the tax incentives. It also launched RAV4, an SUV made by FAW Toyota in April, followed by Highlander SUV, made at Guangzhou Toyota, the next month.

Guangzhou Toyota had recently raised the annual sales target of Highlander to 35,000 units for the full year, from 20,000 units due to brisk sales, said the spokesman.

Toyota Motor said last month that it would increase the proportion of its smaller cars in the Chinese market for sales growth. The carmaker also plans to launch a new subcompact "family car" in China by 2015.

Chinese buyers have been snapping up smaller cars, especially after the government in January cut sales taxes on sub-1.6-liter cars. However, Toyota, whose product line-up focused on larger cars, reported flat China sales in the first half of the year.

Toyota's sales have since picked up, rising 43% in August from a year earlier to 67,000 units. Sales in the January-August period rose 9% from the same period last year to 415,000 units.

In addition to putting more of its small cars to the China market, Toyota will also increase its Chinese dealerships to around 590 by year-end from about 500 in August.