Toyota Motor and Honda Motor, Japan’s two largest carmakers, boosted production in July as growth overseas more than offset a loss of output at home caused by an earthquake.
Toyota, Japan’s biggest automaker, raised global production 3.5 per cent to 736,750 vehicles in July, and Honda’s output rose 6 per cent to 290,845 vehicles, the companies said on Tuesday.
Honda and Toyota’s production growth in Europe and Asia and increased exports to the US have been driven by increasing demand for fuel-efficient models. Growth overseas helped offset the two carmakers’ combined loss of almost 75,000 vehicles after a supplier’s factories were damaged by a July 16 earthquake.
Honda’s overseas output rose 17.6 per cent to 192,859 vehicles and Toyota raised overseas production by 22 per cent to 356,887 units.