Toyota targets 1.1m vehicle sales in China this year, after missing 2014 goal

[BEIJING] Toyota Motor Corp and its two Chinese joint ventures are targeting to sell 1.1 million vehicles in China in 2015, after failing to meet its sales objective for last year.

The carmaker sold about 1.03 million vehicles in China in 2014, up 12.5 per cent from the previous year but short of its sales target of more than 1.1 million vehicles.

For the month of December, the top Japanese carmaker sold 125,000 vehicles, a rise of 15.3 per cent from a year earlier, it said on Tuesday.

The monthly gain followed a 2.9 per cent year-on-year rise in November and a 27.1 per cent increase in October.

Toyota executives told Reuters late last month that it was likely to miss its 2014 sales target and will sell slightly more than 1 million vehicles this year.

Still, 2014 marks the first time Toyota surpassed annual sales of 1 million vehicles in China, a target it originally aimed for in 2010.

Toyota operates joint ventures in China with China FAW Group Corp and Guangzhou Automobile Group .

REUTERS