NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. plans to make capital investments of more than 4 trillion yen over three years through fiscal 2008 on a consolidated basis to boost its production worldwide, company sources said Thursday.
The automaker earlier said it will spend a record 1.55 trillion yen on plants and equipment in the year ending next March. This will be followed by another 1.4 trillion yen or so in capital spending per year in fiscal 2007 and 2008, the sources said.
The three-year budget would amount to more than twice the capital investment planned by Toshiba Corp. for the three years through March 2009 for its semiconductor division, which is a highly capital-intensive operation. This means that Japan's most profitable company will also become its largest capital investor.
Hoping to maintain the momentum from its strong sales worldwide, the carmaker aims to boost output, particularly overseas. The Toyota group's annual production is projected to top 10 million vehicles within several years with the output by Toyota Motor Co. alone reaching that level by 2010.
The company plans call for new factories in 10 locations, including China, the United States, Thailand and Russia, within three to four years. Each facility is estimated to cost about 100 billion yen.
On top of this, the company will allocate substantial funds to upgrade existing plants, to develop mew models and to build more environmentally friendly vehicles, including hybrids.