Toyota likely to miss 2008 U.S. sales target

Posted Tue Jun 24 2008 8:44 AM by Ralph Hanson

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.

Reader Comments

Tue Jun 24 2008 9:01 AM
Alan says

All this is rather inevitable, but in some ways i'm happy to see sells of large SUV decline, this cars are not neccesary to most people who buys them.
Tue Jun 24 2008 9:07 AM
bambam says

isn't everyone going to miss their sales target. LOL
if not I bet the target was only set yesterday.
Tue Jun 24 2008 9:11 AM
lucifer says

Shocking. Even w/ their fuel efficient vehicles they should have known sales of the Tundrea, FJ Cruiser, Avalon, LS, LX et all would slide.
Tue Jun 24 2008 10:51 AM
bambam says

Its not that they don't know, its because of this, that's why the Tundrea and others are selling good compare to the locals. Who else gives you a drive from A to B with no other aim in mind but fuel savings. Don't tell me you bought it for performance. However no one knew it would be this bad.
Tue Jun 24 2008 12:12 PM
Gus says

I think bambam is right, pretty much everyone is going to miss their sales "target" this year...

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