NAGOYA (Nikkei)--Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) aims to step up efforts to eliminate excess production capacity and reorganize its sales operations to return to profitability in the year ending March 31, 2011, President Akio Toyoda told a news conference Tuesday. "Recently, sales have recovered to slightly more than an annualized 10 million units," Toyoda said, describing the latest industrywide auto sales results in its mainstay market of the U.S. "We see sales recovering to 14 million units at the most, probably 12 million units more realistically, sometime in the future," the president added, indicating sales are unlikely to return to the peak level of 17 million units. For the Japanese market, where tax breaks and subsidies for environmentally friendly cars boosted new car sales, Toyoda also revealed a cautious view, saying "It is too early to turn optimistic." Pointing out that price reductions stemming from tax breaks and subsidies have been able to strengthen demand for new cars, Toyoda indicated his desire to drive cost-cutting further. "Cost reductions are not easy, but there are hints that demand will increase if cars become cheaper," he said. After working to lift its output capacity around the world in the past several years, the Toyota group now has a total annual production capacity of roughly 10 million units. But the global sales slump since last autumn has turned at least 3 million out of the 10 million units into excess capacity. "It is difficult to close factories, but we will think of ways, including suspending some production lines, to eliminate supply-demand gaps region by region," Toyoda said. Upon becoming president in late June, Toyoda announced plans to end Toyota's existing sales strategy of offering a wide range of automobiles around the world in favor of tailoring lineups to suit individual regions. "We are now discussing what sort of company we want to be in each region," the president said. In addition to hybrid vehicles, such as the Prius, Toyota aims to develop electric and fuel-cell vehicles as its green car offerings, according to Toyoda. "It was a difficult decision" to close New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., an auto production joint venture with General Motors Corp. in the U.S. state of California, he said. "We wanted to continue, but production dropped 30%" with GM's withdrawal, Toyoda continued. The president indicated that Toyota plans to explore new cooperative relationships with the reborn U.S. auto giant. http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/e/fr/tnks/Nni20090908D08JFA14.htm
But JPM said we were going to get a V shaped recovery, that there would be no new normal? Didn't the folks at Toyota get that memo?