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Toyota's Losses Will Triple

First loss in seven decades multiplies as market deteriorates

By Clay Dillow, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 6, 2009 8:29 AM CST

(Newser) – Toyota now expects its full-year operating loss to be three times larger than the $1.6 billion it forecast in December, the New York Times reports. The company expects to lose $5 billion for the fiscal year through March 31 as world automobile demand deteriorates. Toyota, which last year overtook GM as the world’s largest automaker, blamed declines in auto sales as well as gains by the yen.

Struggling with a swollen inventory of unsold cars and trucks, the company is nonetheless pressing ahead with hybrid and compact vehicle investment. A new model Prius is expected in May, and the first hybrid Lexus models are expected this summer. This year’s loss is the first ever for Toyota.

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

In this file photo, the company logo shines off the grille of an unsold 2008 4Runner at a Toyota dealership in the south Denver suburb of Littleton, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, file)

Production team member Phillip Hicks installs a door on a Toyota Camry on the assembly line at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky plant in Georgetown, Ky., on Monday, Nov. 10, 2008. (AP Photo)

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Toyota is going to get worse before it gets better. The question is how quickly they can move to deal with inventory, excess production capacity and other problems.
- Tairiku Sakaguchi, auto analyst at Shinko Securities in Tokyo

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Toyota's Losses Will Triple