Andrea Formica, senior vice president of Toyota Motor Europe, says the brand's sales will rise in the following years owing to East-European markets and to the launch of new models for the West-European market.
"The European market must be divided into east and west. In Western European countries, we expect flat sales in the following years, while Eastern European sales are forecast to rise by as much as 30%. Romania, Russia and Ukraine will play an important role in this regard. Toyota's biggest challenge in Eastern Europe is distribution network development," stated Andrea Formica.
Owing to rising sales, Toyota Romania is now a full-fledged representative office and stopped being managed by Toyota Greece on January 1st.
"We'll have a much more direct relationship with the Bucharest office in terms of deliveries as well. By 2012, we expect Romania to be one of the top 10 markets for Toyota," Formica stated.
As Toyota's domestic sales went beyond the annual threshold of 10,000 units in 2007, according to the company's vice president, the 20,000-unit volume will be exceeded before 2012.
"At present, I cannot anticipate Toyota sales growth in Romania in 2008, but the current network is a good starting point. If Romania's GDP continues to rise, we may witness higher-than-expected increases," Formica said.
Thierry Dombreval, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Europe, is of the same opinion. "(...) In Romania, Toyota sales have posted a significant increase, but the market share is still low," said Dombreval.
The structure of the Romanian market is highly different from that of Western Europe.
"In Romania, Dacia dominates with Logan. In the following years, Romania will follow the same route as the Czech Republic or Poland, namely a market segmentation close to that of Western Europe," said Formica.
To be able to generate higher sales on emerging markets, where low-cost models hold important market shares, Toyota is testing out the potential of such a model.
According to Toyota Europe president, the future low-cost model may compete with the current Dacia Logan model on the emerging markets of India or Russia.
The model is "specially designed for emerging markets such as Russia, and Ukraine. The model will not rival Tata Nano. We cannot produce a $2,500 model. It will be much closer to Dacia Logan," stated Tadashi Arashima, CEO and president of Toyota Motor Europe.
During the Geneva Auto Show, Toyota presented the stock version of iQ, the new mini model of the Japanese carmaker designed for the European market, whose carbon dioxide emissions stand at 100g/km, together with the Urban Cruiser concept.
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