Toyota, on track to beat General Motors as the world’s biggest automaker this year, said its April-June profit jumped 32.3 per cent to a record high for a quarter, lifted by strong overseas sales and a weaker yen.
Surging gas prices have proved a big plus for the Japanese automaker, as drivers flock to Toyota’s fuel-efficient models, including the Camry, the best-selling model in the US, and the Prius gas-electric hybrid.
“The results are fantastic,” said Tsuyoshi Mochimaru, auto analyst with Lehman Brothers in Japan.
Overseas sales are going strong, and the weak yen, which raises the value of overseas earnings when converted into yen, is making rosy earnings even rosier as Toyota’s exports grow, Mochimaru said.
Group net profit at Toyota, which also makes the Lexus luxury model and compact Corolla, total 491.54 billion yen for the quarter through June, up from 371.50 billion yen the same period the previous year.
Quarterly sales rose 15.7 per cent on year to a record 6.523 trillion yen, or USD 54.7 billion.
At current exchange rates, that’s more than General Motors Corp.’s record quarterly sales of USD 54.5 billion, which the Detroit automaker marked in the second quarter of 2006.
