Toyota to Hike SUV Output for U.S.

Toyota Motor Corp. is looking for ways to squeeze more production from existing SUVs and crossover vehicle factories in Canada and Japan to pace rising demand in the U.S.

Jim Lentz, who heads Toyota's North American operations, tells Bloomberg News a freeze on new capacity imposed by Toyota President Akio Toyoda won't lift until April 2016.

Last year U.S. demand for Toyota and Lexus brand SUV/crossovers climbed 17% to 701,000, according to Autodata Corp. Demand for the company's Canadian-made RAV4 compact SUV zoomed 23% to 267,700. Toyota tells Bloomberg that demand for RAV4s could reach 300,000 as soon as this year.

Lentz says the next boom in such vehicles will be models smaller than the RAV4 and its Lexus NX sibling.