Toyota's international sales for 2007 came to 8,429,422 vehicles. Of that total 2,620,826 were delivered in North America and 1,587,335 in Japan.
The next largest region was China with 499,230 vehicles.
South Africa is ranked ninth with a contribution of 152,821 vehicles sold. Interestingly enough, this figure does not include exports. Last year Toyota South Africa also exported 59,378 Hilux and Corolla products.
Toyota sales by country, including Japan are:
1. USA - 2,620,826
2. Japan - 1,587,335
3. China - 499,230
4. Thailand - 282,088
5. Australia - 244,846
6. Canada - 201,326
7. Saudi Arabia - 171,325
8. Russia - 166,802
9. South Africa - 152,821
10. Indonesia - 152,455
“Viewed in the context of Toyota South Africa's position in brand's global markets the importance of South Africa as a top-ten global market for the company is apparent,” says Johan van Zyl, President and CEO of Toyota South Africa.
“Our performance as the market leader in South Africa for the past 28 years has been fundamental in the development of Toyota South Africa as a significant world class manufacturing hub that feeds into the Toyota global vehicle manufacturing network.
“This supports the TMC philosophy of manufacturing vehicles as close as possible to the markets in which they are distributed. In our case, this represents markets in Africa and Europe. As we progress through 2008 the full impact of the massive investment that has taken place in Toyota South Africa over the past five years will be realised as we ramp up to our full production capacity of over 200,000 vehicles a year.”
He said Toyota South Africa had entrenched itself, not only as the largest vehicle manufacturer on the African continent, but also as the leading exporter of vehicles in South Africa.
“In 2007 our export sales totalled 34,7% of all vehicle exports from South Africa and our markets were only in Africa. This year we will start with exporting Corolla to European destinations with an eventual target of 100,000 vehicles a year,” he said.
