Toyota cuts 2009 global sales forecast

People walk past a Camry at a Toyota Motor Corp showroom in Tokyo August 7, 2008. (REUTERS/Michael Caronna)

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> said on Thursday it would miss its goal of selling more than 10 million vehicles next year, lowering its forecast by nearly 7 percent to account for a severe downturn in Western markets driven by high fuel prices and a credit crunch.

The weaker outlook at the world's most profitable carmaker highlights an increasingly difficult environment for global automakers faced with softening demand for cars in the United States and Western Europe, especially for higher-margin, gas-thirsty vehicles.

Toyota now expects to sell about 9.7 million vehicles in 2009 with its units Daihatsu Motor Co <7262.T> and Hino Motors Ltd <7205.T>, lowering the figure from 10.4 million.

The revision was slightly lower than the 9.8 million expected.

It comes after the company trimmed its sales projection for this year, calling for growth of just 1 percent from 2007 to 9.5 million units. Tougher times at its U.S. rivals, however, are likely to keep Toyota ahead of General Motors Corp <GM.N> as the world's biggest automaker this year.

A year ago, at its previous business strategy briefing, Toyota declared a successful entry into the full-sized pickup truck segment in the United States with the Titan -- a model it had billed its most important ever in the world's biggest auto market.

But rocketing fuel prices in the past year have scared consumers away from such vehicles, forcing virtually every brand to idle or slow down production of pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles in North America.

($1=109.42 Yen) (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Lincoln Feast)