Toyota, Nissan July Output Rises

Toyota, Japan's biggest carmaker, and Nissan, its closest rival, also announced increases on Friday in their overseas production for July.

We introduced two types of recreational vehicles earlier this year and they have been very popular, a Toyota spokeswoman said. Our business is certainly picking up. We plan to launch new models later this year and we would like our share (of the domestic market) to exceed 40 per cent this year.

Toyota currently holds 39.5 per cent of the domestic market.

It said its domestic production in July rose 16 per cent from the year before. Its exports in July were up 37.3 per cent year-on-year and overseas production up 15.8 per cent.

In July last year, our exports to the West Asia were small due to the high yen, and the US-Japan car dispute had a negative impact on our exports to the US, the Toyota spokeswoman said. Exports to Asia rose.

Nissan also said active demand for recreational vehicles pushed up its production in July. Demand for luxury cars was also robust, a company spokeswoman said. Nissan said its July domestic production was up 5.4 per cent from the previous year. Exports were down 1.1 per cent but overseas production was up 14.8 per cent.

In contrast with its bigger rivals, domestic production at Mitsubishi Motors Corp, Japan's third-largest car maker, rose only 0.1 per cent year-on-year in July.

Our figures have been lower than other makers lately. We enjoyed an unrivalled share in the recreational vehicle market in the past, but other makers have entered the business, a Mitsubishi spokesman said.