Japan's Toyota Motor, in a close race with General Motors for the title of the world's top automaker, may suffer a decline in US sales for a second straight year, a top executive warned on Tuesday.
The Japanese auto giant has previously said it aims to exceed last year's US sales of 2.62 million vehicles in 2008.
“But we cannot help but say it's difficult to top last year's figure,” vice president Tokuichi Uranishi told a meeting of shareholders in the central city of Nagoya, according to a company spokesman.
Sales of automobiles, particularly large vehicles, are slumping in the United States due to soaring fuel prices and slack consumer spending amid a weaker economy and mortgage crisis.
Toyota suffered a two-percent decline in sales in the United States last year following a 12-percent gain the previous year.
The company said earlier this month that it would cut production at three US plants in Texas, Indiana and Alabama.
Toyota has enjoyed brisk sales in recent years in the world's largest economy, but with the US market now losing steam, the group is stepping up its focus on fast-growing markets such as China, India, Russia and Brazil.
The Japanese giant sold 1.047 million Toyota or Lexus brand vehicles in the United States in the five months to May, down four percent from a year earlier, according to the company's figures.
