Toyota Motor aims 7.7 mln vehicle sales in 2011

Toyota Motor Corp on Tuesday said that it expects to sell 7.7 million vehicles worldwide next year, up 3 percent from 2010, by tapping emerging markets Asian markets, such as China and India.

The car maker aims Asian sales to climb 11% to 2.06 million units next year after leaping 21% to 1.86 million units for 2010. In the U.S., sales would rise 9% to 1.9 million units in 2011, turning around from a 1% drop to 1.75 million units this year.

The world's leading auto maker is targeting sales of 1.3 million vehicles in Japan, down 17 percent largely on the demise of government subsidies for environmentally friendly vehicles. This would make domestic sales account for 17% of Toyota's targeted global sales for 2011 -- just half of the 34% in 2000.

Total sales for China during January-November 2010 were up 16.7 per cent to 726,500 units. Toyota's sales in China are now on track to hit the full-year target of 800, 000 units for the period ending December.

The carmaker has sold 129,317 vehicles in November, as against 133,700 vehicles during the same period a year ago in US.