Scripts:
Behind The Wheel this morning, Toyota is in hot pursuit of the title of the world’s biggest automaker in global vehicle sales. This morning the company has released its plan to dethrone GM. And joining us this morning with more is CNBC’s auto reporter Phil Lebeau. Phil, looks like they got a shot of this, doesn’t it?

Yeah, it could happen this year, Carl. The latest number is coming out of Tokyo this morning with Toyota’s president giving a press conference outlining the goal. And take a look at where the sales are for Toyota and General Motors. Last year, this year. Now this year, it's an estimate halfway through the year, they are probably gonna end up tied. Toyota might be slightly ahead but next year Toyota is expected to pull ahead at 9.8 million vehicles. And then look at 2009, they are projected to build 10.4 million vehicles which would be the greatest number of vehicles built by an automaker ever in one year. Whether or not Toyota can match that was brought up to the President of Toyota Katsuaki Watanabe.and here is what he had to say this morning in Tokyo. He said that the company will take on all risks that are out there and all markets. And for Toyota that means aggressively expanding, not only in Europe and the United States where they come on strong, but also in China, India, Russia. That’s really where the growth globally is gonna come for Toyota. Quickly let's take a look at a chart comparing the shares of Toyota VS General Motors over the last three years. Every time I show this, I hear from investors who say enough already. We realize there is no comparison here, but it is worth we taking a look at, look at that up 43% over the last three years. And again, Toyota's expecting to set a record a one year sales by 2009 of 10.4 million vehicles. Carl?

You are not piling on, Phil, you are just bringing in the facts, right? (There you go.) You're just bringing in the facts. Stick around because we wanna dig deeper into what this means for the future of both Toyota and the big three. We're bringing in Michael Robinet. He is a vice president of Global Vehicle Forecasts with CSM worldwide. Uh, Michael, good morning to you.
Good morning.

Uh, I guess the question is (how) where is Toyota exposed? Compared to where GM is exposed, Toyota has already mentioned things like sub-prime here in the US, as some headwinds they are gonna face.

I think there is no doubt, everybody's gonna be facing its headwinds, Toyota, Honda, General Motors, everybody. But it is the different levels. Within North American though, Toyota is still putting the full-court press on Lexus, new full-size pickups, new Camry. They have a Corolla coming out next year. It’s relentless, they're, they are not gonna stop.

Are they , are they , err, more exposed to...to those growth markets like Russia and China that Phil was just talking about?

Uh, they're, they are very exposed to those growth markets. And, but that’s uh, that’s all been within the plan. They look at the brisk locations--the Brazil, Russia, India, China locations and they also look at what we call non-Japan Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Tailand. They are gonna go very strong after those markets. They have the best breadth of any company on earth when it comes to the automotive industry.

Phil, err,I guess how, how easily could the big three unwind their own problems and get to a production level, a level of efficiency that would match Toyota’s?

Well, I think when you are looking at Toyota and General Motors on a global scale that GM has done a phenomenal job about leveraging its resources, particularly in Asia and in Korea and the Chevy brand is growing very aggressively over in Asia as well as in Europe. The key for General Motors is going to be to leverage that international exposure and those international assembly factories to do even more in those developing markets. You know, we focus so much on GM, Ford and Chrysler here in the United States. Yes, it’s the largest market in the world and they have problems here. But the future really is going to depend on what they can do globally. And that’s why you see even Chrysler realizing hey we have got to be more aggressive growing overseas because it’s primarily a North American automaker right now.

Yeah, China, is it the fastest growing automaker in China, Uh, Toyota is,uh, Michael?

Toyota is doing very well, so is General Motors actually. They are both doing extremely well in China. The real growth market that a lot of OEMs are looking at vehicle manufacture (is) India. That is one market that a lot of manufacturers are looking at. And right behind it is Russia.

Are the emerging markets’ margins are noticeably higher or lower out there?

Well, it,it’s a , it's a margin, it's a margin play but it’s also a market share play. If you can be well-set and get a good distribution network in those markets. You will be set for years to come but if you are late, you'll get a real problem.

Interesting, Michael, Phil, I mean I guess we will be talking about it when , if and when moment comes, but until then it’s awfully interesting to speculate about, Michael Robinet and our own Phil Lebeau.

Notes:
full-court press: originally a basketball term, now refers to one's unrelenting best effort.