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2006 European sales for Toyota rose by 13 per cent to 1,124,119 vehicles – 1,073,549 Toyota and 50,570 Lexus – in a
market growing by only 2.7 per cent, the copmpany reported.

For the first time ever, the Toyota brand sold more than 1 million units in Greater Europe, an increase of 11 per cent over 2005. The Lexus brand achieved even more dramatic
acceleration in growth, with sales up 76 per cent breaking the 50,000-unit barrier for the first time.

As a result, Toyota’s market share was up 0.5 percentage points to 5.84% - the highest market share ever for the company in Europe.

Toyota says the challenge for 2007 is to sell 1.22 million units in Europe.

Toyota’s European growth is based on European production. Around 70% of all vehicles sold in Europe are built in Europe. For 2006 this meant 808,463 vehicles, 863,507 engines and 568,212 transmissions from its plants in the UK, France, Turkey, Poland and the Czech Republic.

For 2007, all plants will again operate at full capacity, with a new plant in St Petersburg in Russia due to open at the end of the year.