Toyota shelves goal of selling 10m vehicles

Toyota Motor Corp. on Thursday slashed its 2009 sales forecast due to slowing demand, putting off its goal of becoming the world's first automaker to sell more than 10 million vehicles in a year.
Toyota, vying with General Motors to be the world number one, now aims to sell 9.7 million vehicles in 2009, down from a previous target of 10.4 million. That would mark a 2.1 percent rise compared with the current year.
With sales in Japan, the United States and western Europe expected to stagnate, Toyota is pinning its hopes on fast growing emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China to drive its growth.
But even in those markets the outlook was foggy, said Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe.
"The business environment is rapidly becoming more difficult. Things remain very uncertain, not just in the United States but in emerging countries and resource-rich nations as well," he told a press conference.
"Given the price of gasoline and the economic situation it is quite difficult to imagine a dramatic improvement in the Japanese market.”