While scaling down its global sales goal for 2008 and 2009, Toyota Motor Corp. has increased its sales target over the two years and decided to invest 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million) to boost the capacity in one of its joint ventures in China, said sina.com.cn today. 
Because of the shrinking U.S. auto market, Toyota, the largest Japanese carmaker, reduced its 2008 global sales goal to 9.5 million cars from 9.85 million, and decreased the 2009 goal to 9.7 million units from 10.4 million. By contrast, the company planned to sell more cars in China, aiming to sell 700,000 cars in the Chinese market this year and 900,000 cars next year.

To meet the increasing demand in China's auto market, Toyota has recently announced its plans to invest 1.5 billion yuan in the capacity expansion of the second plant of FAW Toyota joint venture in northeastern China to boost the facility's annual output to 150,000 vehicles from the current 100,000 units.


China is one of Toyota's fast growing markets and will be an important force to help the company get over hard times worldwide. With the global economy to continue depressing, Japanese carmakers including Toyota will probably speed up tapping the Chinese market, as part of their global strategies.

In the first half of this year, Toyota Motor sold 284,000 vehicles in China and overtook General Motors (GM) to become the second-largest foreign carmaker (by sales) in China after Volkswagen. In July, Toyota sold 41,000 more cars in China than GM.