Toyota Dealers in China Threaten to Quit

At least 50 Toyota Motor Corp. dealers in China could drop out unless the carmaker comes up with 2.2 billion yuan ($354 million) in subsidies to help offset their losses, Bloomberg News reports.

An official with the China Automobile Dealers Assn. tells the news service that 95% of the dealers representing FAW-Toyota Motor Sales Co. in the country are losing money. Last week the group asked FAW-Toyota for aid as they struggle with their biggest inventories of unsold cars in more than a year.

Dealers representing BMW vehicles made similar demands last month. Bloomberg cites data from the Passenger Car Assn. indicating that dealer inventories in China grew nearly 16% to 1.7 million units in October-November.