Toyota poised to miss annual sales targets

Toyota Motor Corp is likely to miss its 2014 objective of selling more than 1.1 million vehicles in China because of a faster-than-anticipated economic slowdown and a price war in the local auto market.

Toyota and its two Chinese joint ventures will miss the goal and will sell slightly more than 1 million vehicles in 2015, said two company executives. Researcher IHS Automotive puts sales at 1.09 million in 2014 and 1.15 million in 2015.

The shortcoming reveals continued difficulty for Japanese automakers in China even as diplomatic relations recover from a territorial spat that turned Chinese consumers against Japanese goods. Compounding matters is an increase in models from premium German brands priced within reach of mainstream Japanese cars.