Toyota moves to unseat GM, outpace Ford, with reported plan to boost US production

TOKYO — Toyota Motor is quickening its quest to unseat ailing General Motors as the world's biggest automaker and to widen its lead over Ford Motor, with reported plans to boost overseas production by 40 percent to 5 million vehicles by 2008 and blueprints for higher North American output.

In North America alone, the world's largest auto market, the Japanese company intends to raise production by 20 percent to 1.84 million vehicles in that period, Japan's Nihon Heizai newspaper reported Sunday. Toyota aims to meet the target with the help of new plants previously planned for Texas and Canada, the paper said.

The plan reported Sunday said Toyota aims for production for the first time above 1 million vehicles in Asia, excluding Japan and China.

In China, the automaker aims to quadruple production from 2005 levels to 600,000.

Domestic production is seen rising to 4.15 million vehicles by 2008, bringing Toyota's global output to 9.1 million.

Toyota officials were not available for comment Sunday. But Toyota's robust earnings and sales have put it on track to surpass General Motors as the world's No. 1, analysts say.

The only question is when.

Meanwhile, Ford is falling farther behind since being overtaken by Toyota in 2003.

Cuts announced Friday by Ford will bring its total plant closures to 16, adding to 14 plants announced in a previous restructuring.

Ford also said it would complete cuts of about 30,000 hourly jobs by the end of 2008, four years ahead of its previous target.

Despite Toyota's ambitious outlook, even the Japanese company recognizes no automaker is invincible.

Last month, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe warned that his company could delay some new models as it tries to improve its quality control amid a spate of recalls.

The glitches were partly due to efforts to cut costs by using the same parts across different models, but could do lasting damage to Toyota's reputation for reliability.