And Toyota has bowed to reality and has cut its 2009 car production forecast by 7% or 700,000 , thanks to the impact of high petrol prices on demand in the US, Europe and Japan.
The cut is going to be deepest of all in the US where high petrol prices (but falling) continue to cut demand for gas guzzling sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks, vehicles Toyota has just moved into in a big way in the past couple of years.
The company said yesterday that it now is aiming to sell 9.7 million vehicles worldwide in 2009, compared with an earlier estimate of 10.4 million.
That lowered estimate will be around 200,000 above the 9.5 million the company still hopes to produce this year.
Toyota cut its US production forecast by 300,000 vehicles to 2.7 million- the same volume it expects this year – and also cut 150,000 units each off of its projections for Europe, Japan and the rest of Asia. Toyota cut its 2008 estimates last month.
Toyota has stopped production of its US Sequoia SUVs and Tundra pickups for three months thanks a slump in demand.
The company will convert one of its pick up truck plants in the US to produce the Prius hybrid car there from 2010.
Toyota is now looking to higher sales in India, China, Brazil and Russia to offset the slump in its more traditional markets.
And Hino Motors, a Toyota affiliate says it will cut production of sport-utility vehicles for its parent.
Hino makes trucks, but it also subcontracts its Tokyo factory, which makes SUVs for its parent, which will be cut by an as yet undetermined number.
Driving these changes is a 20% drop in Toyota’s US light truck sales so far this year, with July seeing a 34% fall. Toyota is reportedly trimming production at other Japanese car plants of US bound trucks and SUVs.
And to make things a bit more complicated, Toyota lifted its global output last month in response to rising demand for small fuel efficient vehicles and its hybrid range
Production increases in China and other emerging markets helped Toyota offset declines in the US.
Toyota boosted domestic Japanese prices for the first time in 16 years: but only on commercial and hybrid vehicles.
