Toyota To Occupy 5% Of European Market

Toyota Motor Corp is tending to double spending on Europe-made parts and materials to 3.5 billion euros by 2005 as it expands local production.

The automaker has spent more than 4 billion euros on its European production operations and expects to become profitable in the region in the year ending March 31, 2003.

The company plans to make more than 500,000 vehicles, 830,000 engines and 550,000 transmissions a year at its plants in France, the U.K., Poland and Turkey.

For the full year the company plans to sell about 740,000 vehicles in the region.
In the first half of this year Toyota sold 518,000 autos in Europe, that is15 percent more than a year earlier.

The automaker expects to have about a 5 percent share of the European auto market by 2004.

Toyota's current profit rose 15 percent to 1.1 trillion yen. Operating profit rose 29 percent to 1.1 trillion yen.

Toyota shares rose as much as 2.9 percent to 3,190 yen.