TOYOTA Motor Corp, wary of trumpeting its success while US auto makers shut plants and cut jobs, is downplaying its sales outlook in North America, said analysts and investors - who aren't buying it.
The company's sales in the region will grow as much as five times faster than what the car maker, poised to become the world's biggest, predicts for the year ending March 31, according to analyst estimates. North America accounts for about 60 percent of Toyota's operating profit.
"Toyota has spent decades winning the hearts and minds of US consumers," said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a senior analyst at Shinsei Securities Co in Tokyo. "They don't want to gloat when the US Big Three are having so much trouble."
Toyota's prediction that its North American sales growth will plummet to 1.6 percent this business year from 15 percent last year comes as the company is poised to surpass General Motors Corp in annual worldwide sales. The Toyota City, Japan-based maker of Camry sedans and Prius hybrid cars has said it is concerned about criticism as it takes away sales from GM, Ford Motor Co and DaimlerChrysler.
Analysts and investors disagree. Toyota's North American sales will grow nine percent in the year ending March 31, even as the overall market shrinks or is little changed, said Shinsei's Matsumoto. Kurt Sanger, a Tokyo-based analyst at Macquarie Securities Co, said the sales may rise five percent.