Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest carmaker, lowered its forecast for 2009 auto sales growth to 2.1 percent from 5.6 percent as record fuel prices and slowing economies damp global demand.

Sales will climb to 9.7 million vehicles next year from an estimated 9.5 million this year, the company said in a statement today. It previously forecast sales to rise to 10.4 million from 9.85 million.

The automaker will reduce production in the U.K. and Poland, adding to cuts in the U.S. Toyota lowered the target for North America, its biggest market, by 10 percent as drivers buy fewer sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks because of gasoline prices that have reached $4 a gallon.

``The operating environment is getting tougher, that's for sure,'' said Edwin Merner, who oversees $2 billion as president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo. ``Those numbers are fairly realistic.''

The company will cut one of two daily shifts at U.K. and Polish factories later in the year, Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyamada told reporters in Tokyo today. The plant in Burnaston, England, builds engines and assembles cars including the Avensis sedan and Auris hatchback. The Polish factory makes engines and transmissions.

The company is cutting production in the U.K. as it prepares to revamp the Avensis sedan, Uchiyamada said. It has no plan to fire workers, he added. The company will introduce 18 models that emit less pollution in Western Europe by the end of next year.

Regional Forecasts

Toyota cut its 2009 North American sales forecast to 2.7 million vehicles from 3 million. In Europe, the carmaker reduced its estimate to 1.3 million units from 1.45 million. Asia excluding Japan was lowered to 1.75 million from its 1.9 million.

Oceania, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East was the only area were Toyota raised its goal. Sales may reach 1.7 million vehicles from an earlier figure of 1.65 million.

The forecasts include Toyota's Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd. subsidiaries. The two companies' sales account for about 10 percent of the estimate.

Toyota closed unchanged at 4,770 at the 3 p.m. close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The carmaker has fallen 28 percent in the past year.

The company has halted production of Sequoia SUVs and Tundra pickups in the U.S. for three months as a 34 percent jump in gasoline prices threatens to push industrywide vehicle sales to a 15-year low. Toyota's U.S. light-truck sales slipped 15 percent in the first seven months of the year.

General Motors Corp., the world's biggest automaker, is also reorganizing production to reflect plunging vehicle sales. Full-year U.S. industrywide sales may drop to 14.2 million, the lowest since 1993, according to J.D. Power & Associates.

Prius Production

To offset the slowdown, Toyota plans to build Prius gasoline-electric hybrid cars in the U.S. from 2010. The move will ease production constraints that have left U.S. dealers with shortages of the car and an oversupply of big trucks. Toyota mainly builds the model in Japan at present.

Toyota will introduce plug-in hybrids by the end of 2009, ahead of its original schedule of 2010, and will start to mass- produce electric cars in the early 2010s, President Katsuaki Watanabe said today. The plug-in hybrids, the first available to fleet customers, will use normal electric sockets to recharge.

Emerging Markets

Toyota is aiming to boost sales and production in China, the world's fastest growing major auto market, to 1 million vehicles a year early in the next decade, as it bets on emerging markets to counter the slowdown in Japan, Europe and North America.

The automaker plans to boost Toyota and Lexus dealerships in China to 850 outlets in 2010 from 500 in 2008, Watanabe said. Dealers in Russia will jump to 148 from 72 in 2007, he said. The carmaker will also add a compact car in Brazil and India, he added.

``Toyota will come out from its doldrums,'' said Hitoshi Yamamoto, chief executive officer of Tokyo-based Fortis Asset Management Japan Co., which manages $5.5 billion in Japanese equities. ``The company is shifting its gears to new markets, because they are now leading the global economy.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo at nfujimura@bloomberg.net; Tetsuya Komatsu in Tokyo at tekomatsu@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 28, 2008 04:42 EDT