Toyota said Tuesday its net profit surged 34 percent in the July-September quarter, boosted by strong sales in the North American and European markets at a time its U.S. rivals are struggling.
The Japanese automaker, on pace to overtake General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker in coming years, also raised its profit forecast for the full fiscal year through March to 1.55 trillion yen ($13.14 billion), up from an earlier 1.31 trillion yen.
For the fiscal second quarter, Toyota Motor Corp. posted 405.7 billion yen ($3.44 billion) in group net profit, up 33.5 percent from the 303.7 billion yen reported for the same period last year.
Overall sales in the fiscal second quarter rose 17.3 percent to 5.83 trillion yen ($49.4 billion). Sales were up in North America, due to the strong sales of redesigned models such as the RAV4 and Yaris, and the new model FJ Cruiser.
"It looks like Toyota's efforts to overtake GM are going according to plan," said Shiichiro Kobayashi, Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting. "Basically, Toyota is eating the pie of the Big Three in the United States."
Both GM and Ford Motor Co. reported losses in the most recent quarter, and in July Toyota for the first time beat Ford in U.S. vehicle market share.
Toyota's stellar results came despite a string of potentially damaging recalls because of defective parts, and investigations of the company in the United States and Japan. Toyota officials reiterated their pledge Tuesday to preserve the company's reputation for excellence while keeping down costs.
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