Toyota Motor Corp. is considering building new assembly plants in Texas, France, China and India, raising its global output capacity to more than 10 million units a year by 2010, the Yomiuri Daily reported on Monday.
The Japanese car giant, having difficulty in dealing with strong demand for its fuel-efficient cars, is discussing plans to build four more assembly plants globally by 2010, in addition to six plants which have already been announced, the paper said.
Toyota produced 7.36 million vehicles in 2005, compared to front-runner General Motors Corp.'s 9.05 million.
A Toyota spokeswoman said nothing has been decided on further production increase plans. Toyota expects its output to rise to 8.1 million units in 2006, but has not set a production target for 2010, she said.
Construction of new plants is currently underway in Texas, Guangzhou and Tianjin in China, Thailand, Russia and Canada.
Quoting a Toyota executive, the Yomiuri paper said Toyota intends to start operations of a second assembly plant in Texas in 2009, in addition to a new plant that will begin operation later this year.
Toyota is also discussing second assembly plants in Guangzhou in China and Valenciennes in northern France, the paper said.
In India, it is considering producing low-cost cars at a new plant as early as in 2010, the paper said.
