Toyota Riding High on Record Year and Predicting Another in 2013

Things are very good at ToyotaToyotaJapan, 1937 > present155 models
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this year, and it predicts that next year will be even better. It is predicting that sales will be up another 2% next year. This year, Toyota global sales are up 22% to 9.7 million cars; over 7 million of those sales will come outside of Japan. Most of the sales increase is predicted to come from the United States. If the yen continues to weaken, Toyota will see an even bigger boost. 

"We expect sales in the U.S. and Asia to continue to rise next year. Asia's sales will be driven by Indonesia, while for the U.S., models such as Avalon and Lexus LSLexus LS Gen.4Japan, 2006 > present40 versions
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will likely help boost sales," said Toyota Spokesman Joichi Tachikawa.

The auto market in Japan and Europe are predicted to fall, but the North American sales should offset the loss. Chinese sales will also be a problem. China and Japan are in a stalemate over a small group of islands, and it is causing Chinese consumers not to buy Japanese cars. Sales in China so far this year are down 3.3% and predicted to get worse. 

In the last year, the yen has gone from 75.14 yen to the dollar to 86.05 yen to the dollar today (100 yen to the Euro a year ago to 113.65 yen to the Euro today). If this trend continues, which it is forecasted to, it will make all Japanese companies more profitable in the export market. 

Toyota has kept the largest number of Japanese workers compared to other domestic automakers, which means it has the most to gain from a weaker yen. For every one-yen increase in value relation to the dollar, Toyota's profit increases by 35 billion yen because of its investment in building cars in Japan. 

The company just sold its 500,000th hybrid car in Europe on December 20. It was a silver Yaris HybridToyota Yaris HybridJapan, 2012 > present3 photos
and went to a buyer in France. It took Toyota since 2000 when it introduced the PriusToyota Prius Gen.3Japan, 2010 > present52 versions
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in Europe to achieve the milestone. Today, hybrid sales are about 15% of Toyota's European market. 

"We believe that hybrid technology has reached the ‘tipping point’ in Europe,” said Karl Schlicht, Toyota head of marketing in Europe.

Toyota and LexusLexusJapan, 1989 > present26 models
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offer 10 hybrids in Europe and plans to have 21 hybrid models worldwide by 2015. It is nearing 5 million hybrid sales worldwide. 

Source: Automotive News (1,2)