Toyota - Japan's top auto maker - raised its half-year parent net profit outlook by 32 per cent today and said it planned to boost global vehicle sales by 11 per cent over the next two years.
Toyota, whose sales have been racing ahead in markets around the world, said it was aiming for group global sales of 9.8 million units in 2008, compared with its forecast of 8.85 million this year.
The new vehicle sales goal means that Toyota is more likely than ever to overtake General Motors as the world's biggest maker by sales volume.
Plagued with a rise in vehicle recalls as it struggles to catch up with runaway demand, Toyota also said it would hire about 8,000 engineers globally by 2010. Toyota said it now expected its parent-only net profit to be 500 billion yen in the six months to end-September, up from an earlier estimate of 380 billion yen.
It raised its operating profit forecast by 170 billion yen to 540 billion yen - 150 billion yen of which it attributed to a weaker-than-expected yen.
Toyota declined to say how much this would affect its consolidated profits. The company only gave a full-year forecast at the group level.
In May, Toyota projected a consolidated operating profit of 1.9 trillion yen for the year to end-March, which compares with a consensus forecast of 2.03 trillion yen from 20 analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.
Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said the auto maker aimed to lift its operating margin to 10 per cent - without specifying a timeframe - from 8.9 percent in 2005/06.