Automakers upbeat at show

September 11, 2001 Posted: 1329 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- European automakers have given largely upbeat forecasts for the coming year as they displayed their wares at one of the world's biggest biennial car shows in Frankfurt.

Helmut Panke, chief financial officer for Germany's BMW told Reuters on Tuesday he expected revenue growth to outstrip unit sales in the medium term.

BMW said last week it expected unit sales to rise by a third in the next six years.

Panke also said the company aimed for peak annual sales of 50,000 units for its new 7-Series, and had sold about 50,000 of the old 7-Series model at its peak. "We would hope to exceed that," he said.

Earlier, the world's No. 2 luxury car maker said unit sales rose 9.6 months in the first eight months of the year amid strong demand for its 5-series model and X5 sport-utility vehicle.

Porsche gives upbeat outlook

German sports car maker Porsche also brushed aside growing concerns for a weakening global economy and gave an upbeat outlook for the year.

Porsche Chief Executive Wendelin Wiedeking said: "We have once again significantly outperformed even the very ambitious targets we have given ourselves, and this is despite the overall weakness of the world economy, which certainly has not given any momentum to the automotive industry as a whole."

He said the company was seeing good demand and that new products, combined with a conservative hedging policy, would continue to drive the

company in the face of tough economic conditions in the United States, where Porsche sells half of its cars.

"We do not expect any weakening of our sales or position in the USA," Wiedeking said. "An overwhelming majority of dealers are still signaling to us that demand is good."

Earlier, Porsche said its unit sales rose 12 percent to 54,586 cars for the year ending July 31, beating its target of 50,000 units and up from 48,797 cars the previous year, Reuters reported.

The world's most profitable carmaker posted a pre-tax profit of over one billion marks for the first time, up from 849 million marks ($393 million).

It also said sales came to about 8.5 billion marks, up from 7.1 billion in the previous year.  Porsche also said it expected a high level of production and

unit sales for the year 2001/2002, with strong demand for current and forthcoming models.

BMW shares were up 1.3 percent at 35.34 in afternoon trading on the Xetra Dax in Frankfurt, while shares in Porsche were down percent at 349.00. The index was up 1.9 percent.

VW fears missing 2001 sales goal

Shares in German automaker Volkswagen were flat at 47.65 on Tuesday, after it said at the weekend it may miss its 2001 return on sales goal.

Chief Executive Ferdinand Piech said on Saturday the company may miss its goal of achieving return on sales of 6.5 percent this year.

Piech said VW would be able to reach the target by cutting back on investment in new products but noted that this would create problems for his successor, Bernd Pischetsrieder.

Toyota Motor Corp earlier said it expects to sell almost 50 percent more of its new Corolla medium-sized family cars than the model it replaces.

Toyota, Japan's biggest car maker and the world's third biggest in production terms, said it has spent around 4 billion in bringing the latest incarnation of its long-serving Corolla to market.

On the eve of the biennial Frankfurt car show, Toyota also said it plans to triple the number of European dealerships for its Lexus luxury brand over the next three years, and more than double sales by 2005.

"We plan to sell over 200,000 new Corollas, compared to an average of 136,000 of the outgoing model over the last four years, an increase of almost 50 percent," said Takis Athanasopoulos, Toyota Europe executive vice president.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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