Toyota Motor Corp. expects record U.S. auto- industry sales for 2015 followed by another two years of strength as gasoline prices remain low and the U.S. economy continues on a path of stable growth.
The industry's deliveries this year are poised to overtake the current annual record of 17.4 million set in 2000. An increase of about 5 percent this month would be enough to establish a new peak, amid low interest rates and gasoline prices. Sales for the past three months have reached a yearly pace of 18.2 million.
Those trends are continuing in December and are pushing the industry toward the new peak, said Bill Fay, the Toyota brand's top sales executive in the U.S., said Thursday in an interview in Detroit. "Sure seems like it" is going to be a record year, he said. "With the August-through-November activity in the market and the momentum and the year-end push and the consumer confidence, gas prices, interest rates — they're all lining up."