Toyota likely to miss 2008 U.S. sales target

No carmaker has been immune from the poor state of the U.S. economy and rising fuel prices, with even industry juggernaut Toyota predicting missed sales target for the North American market this year. Toyota will likely scale back its initial goal of selling more vehicles in the U.S. than it did in 2007 where it managed to post record figures of 2.62 million sales.

Speaking at a shareholder meeting this week, Toyota executive vice president Tokuichi Uranishi conceded that beating 2007’s 2.62 million sales figures would be difficult to achieve. The carmaker’s original goal, first revealed in December last year, was to sell 2.64 million vehicles in the U.S. by the end of 2008 and increase its global sales by 5% to 9.85 million vehicles.

Toyota will review its sales targets next month and is expected to downgrade its projections below that of the 2007 sales figures. Uranishi also predicted that total U.S. sales could slip under 15 million vehicles this year, reports The Detroit News.

Falling demand for large SUVs and pickups has hit most carmakers in the U.S. hard, and has even seen Toyota scale back production of its Tundra and Sequoia models in response.