Whatever else you think of Toyota Canada's sales projections, it's impossible not to be impressed by the extent of the Japanese company's vision or the vastness of its self-regard in thinking it can make it happen.
If you use some of the firm's recent pronouncements about its goals in the truck market and do the math, it looks like Toyota Canada expects to be selling about 375,000 vehicles a year here by the end of the decade.
In case you're wondering, that would put them about 50,000 units behind where GM of Canada will finish this year, and well ahead of every other firm in the country.
Getting to that level would mean a more than a 100 percent increase in the Japanese firm's current sales, since Toyota and Lexus sales came to 158,475 units by the end of November, with a total of 170,000 or so likely for the full year.
The keystone to this estimate is Toyota's plan to be the biggest selling brand in the truck business, which includes pickups, SUVs and minivans. Right now, that honor belongs to Ford, followed closely by Chevrolet, GMC and Dodge.
In today's terms, being the number one truck brand would require Toyota Canada to sell about 160,000 units a year. That's about a four-fold increase from where Toyota currently is in truck sales, by the way.
But that's what Toyota Canada president and CEO Ken Tomikawa recently told a group of auto writers he wanted. ''Toyota remains the number one passenger car nameplate in Canada,'' he stressed, ''and we want that same distinction in the truck market.''
Toyota Canada also does not want to accomplish this at the expense of its car sales. Indeed, at a separate event, the managing director of public relations for Toyota Canada, Steve Beatty, said they ''have no intention of surrendering any of our market gains in the car segment.''
Indeed, Beatty added, ''it's going to require selling a lot more trucks.''
Beatty went on to explain that Toyota planned to bring its car/truck sales ration into balance with the car/truck sales ratio for the Canadian market in general. That means Toyota will go from a 76/24 ratio to something like the 54/46 ratio that currently exists.
So if the company's plan is to sell 160,000 Toyota trucks to take the number one spot, it follows that it will also have to sell about 200,000 Toyota cars. On top of that, of course, there will be unknown amounts of Lexus sales, which are about 9,000 a year now. Assume similar growth for the luxury brand and brings Lexus to 18,000 units a year, and Toyota Canada's overall sales to almost 375,000.
If the overall market grows between now and the end of the decade, as many believe it will at least a little, Toyota's projected level could be even higher.
The extent of Tomikawa and Beatty's sanguinity about Toyota's future can be best appreciated when you consider that Toyota truck sales are actually down slightly (0.9 percent) in the first 11 months of 2004 versus 2003, and overall Toyota-Lexus car and truck sales are up only 1.5 percent from last year, despite a bunch of new and improved products.
In terms of bumping those truck sales, the big move for Toyota will have to be an improved full-size pickup that comes in vastly more configurations than the current Tundra.
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In case you're wondering, that would put them about 50,000 units behind where GM of Canada will finish this year, and well ahead of every other firm in the country.
Getting to that level would mean a more than a 100 percent increase in the Japanese firm's current sales, since Toyota and Lexus sales came to 158,475 units by the end of November, with a total of 170,000 or so likely for the full year.
The keystone to this estimate is Toyota's plan to be the biggest selling brand in the truck business, which includes pickups, SUVs and minivans. Right now, that honor belongs to Ford, followed closely by Chevrolet, GMC and Dodge.
In today's terms, being the number one truck brand would require Toyota Canada to sell about 160,000 units a year. That's about a four-fold increase from where Toyota currently is in truck sales, by the way.
But that's what Toyota Canada president and CEO Ken Tomikawa recently told a group of auto writers he wanted. ''Toyota remains the number one passenger car nameplate in Canada,'' he stressed, ''and we want that same distinction in the truck market.''
Toyota Canada also does not want to accomplish this at the expense of its car sales. Indeed, at a separate event, the managing director of public relations for Toyota Canada, Steve Beatty, said they ''have no intention of surrendering any of our market gains in the car segment.''
Indeed, Beatty added, ''it's going to require selling a lot more trucks.''
Beatty went on to explain that Toyota planned to bring its car/truck sales ration into balance with the car/truck sales ratio for the Canadian market in general. That means Toyota will go from a 76/24 ratio to something like the 54/46 ratio that currently exists.
So if the company's plan is to sell 160,000 Toyota trucks to take the number one spot, it follows that it will also have to sell about 200,000 Toyota cars. On top of that, of course, there will be unknown amounts of Lexus sales, which are about 9,000 a year now. Assume similar growth for the luxury brand and brings Lexus to 18,000 units a year, and Toyota Canada's overall sales to almost 375,000.
If the overall market grows between now and the end of the decade, as many believe it will at least a little, Toyota's projected level could be even higher.
 |
In terms of bumping those truck sales, the big move for Toyota will have to be an improved full-size pickup that comes in vastly more configurations than the current Tundra.