By Ben Klayman
DETROIT, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp needs to add production capacity and sell more types of cars to boost its market share in Brazil and Mexico, Latin America's two largest economies, the American board member for the No. 1 Japanese automaker said on Wednesday.
"The real solution to Toyota's growth in Latin America and Brazil would be more product and eventually more production capacity," Mark Hogan told reporters at a company event outside Detroit. "The market for Toyota vehicles in Brazil is only limited by the company's capacity to be able to export or build them there efficiently."
Hogan, a former General Motors Co executive who joined Toyota's board in June, also said the company has a very small market presence in Mexico, where it also underperforms. "That, too, will get changed with more production capacity and more product," he said.
Toyota has three assembly plants in Brazil and one in Mexico. Starting in 2015, Toyota will begin selling in the U.S. and Canadian markets 50,000 cars a year built by Mazda at a plant under construction in Mexico.
Hogan, speaking to reporters at a Toyota hybrid vehicle event, did not give a timetable for when the plants would be added or what vehicles they would build.
Speaking about the weak Japanese yen, he acknowledged that Toyota sees some benefit, but said the weaker yen was where it needed to be for the stagnant Japanese economy to grow.