Toyota Motor Corp, Japan's top automaker, expects its unit sales in the Chinese mainland to grow by 40 percent this year.

The company's sales will reach 140,000 vehicles in the mainland this year, up from almost 100,000 units last year, said Masashi Isogai, deputy executive representative of Toyota Motor Corp China Office.

The figure is lower than Toyota's previous target of more than 150,000 vehicles on the mainland this year.

Toyota sold 92,441 vehicles in the mainland in the first 10 months of this year.

The sales included 72,735 vehicles produced in China and 19,706 imported units.

Toyota now produces Corolla, Vios and Dario Terios compact cars, Land Cruiser and Prado sport utility vehicles and Coaster buses in three joint ventures in northern, northeastern and western China with First Automotive Works Corp (FAW), the nation's No 1 automobile manufacturer.

"The current slowdown in growth of China's automobile market is very natural following robust growth over the past two years," said Isogai.

Sales of vehicles made in China rose by 17.6 percent year-on-year to 4.13 million units from January to October this year.

The growth was down from 34 percent last year. Sales growth of passenger cars declined to 18.8 percent during the period from 75 percent last year.

"We do not expect a big sales growth in China next year but the market will rebound in 2006," Isogai told China Daily during the ongoing Second Guangzhou International Motor Show.

"We still believe China's auto market will grow to 10 million units by 2010, ranking second in the world," he said.

Toyota aims to control 10 percent of China's auto market by 2010.

The company lags far behind Germany's Volkswagen and US-based General Motors in sales in China.

Volkswagen and General Motors are presently the top two foreign car producers in China.

Toyota will produce all of its "mainstream models" in China even after the nation removes quotas and continues to cut tariffs on vehicle imports, he said.

The company's joint venture in North China's Tianjin Municipality will make the new Crown luxury sedan next Spring.

In September, Toyota launched a new joint venture in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province with Guangzhou Automobile Group, with a total investment of 3.82 billion yuan (US$461.7 million).

The venture will start to produce Camry, one of the best-selling imported sedans in China, in 2006 with an initial capacity of 100,000 units a year.

Toyota will also make Prius hybrid-powered cars next year in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin Province, jointly with FAW.

Executives from Lexus, the luxury brand owned by Toyota, said that it would start to export its newly-developed GS430 and GS300 sedans to China during the first half of next year.

(China Daily November 26, 2004)