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7201.TO, , ) aim to sell more vehicles this year than last year as they seek to attract customers with new models, and solid demand for small cars due to the government's measures to spark demand.
The sanguine views come as these top three Japanese car makers are set to report from later this month a sharp drop in profit, or losses for the fiscal year ended March as they are suffering from a sales slump in other major markets such as the U.S. and Japan.
"China's economy and auto industry are continuing their steady growth amid the global economy slowing down," Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota president, said at a press conference at the Shanghai auto show.
The Chinese auto market is showing surprising resilience with sales in March climbing 5% to a record 1.11 million vehicles, helped by government stimulus initiatives to boost spending, such as tax cuts and other subsidies on auto purchases.
This is a major improvement from the last six months, when car sales slowed amid the global financial crisis. The country's vehicle sales growth slowed to 6.7% to 9.38 million units last year, marking the first non-double-digit growth rate in China's auto sales in almost a decade.
"We still have back orders for 20,000 cars," Kimiyasu Nakamura, president of Dongfeng Motor Co., told reporters at the Shanghai auto show. Dongfeng Motor is a joint venture in China set up by Nissan - Japan's third biggest car maker by volume - and Dongfeng Motor Corp.
