Toyota builds first Chinese Camry
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Toyota builds first Chinese Camry
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Toyota builds first Chinese Camry
Toyota makes move to get bigger share of Chinese market by building its popular Camry sedan at new Chinese factory.
May 23, 2006: 1:27 PM EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota's first Chinese-built Camry sedan rolled off assembly lines on Tuesday, a car that represents the start of a second and somewhat flashier sales channel for the auto maker in the key auto market.
It is also an important milestone in terms of volume growth for Toyota that help puts it on an equal footing in China with rival Japanese automakers.
"We have come to the same level as Nissan and Honda...in terms of volume, quality and overall performance," Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's executive vice president in charge of China operations, told reporters in Tokyo last week.
Had the question been posed a year ago, he said, Toyota, a latecomer to China, would have had to say it was far behind.
The Camry, a family sedan with a reputation for rock-solid reliability, is Toyota's huge U.S. success story, the best-selling car there for eight of the past nine years.
The world's No. 2 automaker is hoping that success will add a certain cachet as it targets customers in China's private sector, typically corporate managers in their 40's.
The cars are being built at a new plant in Guangzhou, jointly owned with the Guangzhou Automotive Group.
The plant has an annual output capacity of 100,000, although Toyota aims to build around 50,000 units this year. If the car takes off, a second shift could be introduced and production capacity lifted to some 150,000 units, Inaba said.
Exports of Camrys to China from Japan, currently between 2,000 and 3,000 vehicles a month, will end.
Toyota has plans for a second model in mind for the Guangzhou plant but has not provided details. The Nihon Kezai business daily has reported that the company plans to build the Yaris subcompact there, aiming for 70,000 units a year.
Toyota will sell the Camry, which will compete with Honda's Accord and Volkswagen's Passat, through 116 outlets, creating a distinct sales channel from the one it has with the FAW Group, its biggest partner in China.
Toyota said it hopes that each outlet will sell an average of 1,000 Camrys annually.
It will be priced between 197,800 yuan and 269,800 yuan, a similar price range to that of Honda's Accord. That's equivalent to about $24,600 to $33,600.
With FAW in Tianjin, Toyota builds cars like the Crown and the Corolla, and its sales channel is targeted more towards government officials.
Toyota sold 183,000 cars in China in 2005 and aims to sell close to 300,000 this year. The company's market share should rise to more than 4 percent this year from 3.1 percent, Inaba said.
Toyota's production capacity in China including the Guangzhou factory is currently 340,000 units. But the automaker also plans to lift its capacity at its second line in Tianjin by 50,000 units and has applied for government approval to build a third line there with capacity of 200,000 units.
By comparison, Honda currently has production capacity of 410,000 vehicles in China which will rise to 530,000 later this year while Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. now has output capacity of 240,000 and plans to lift it to 360,000 by next April.
But while confident about progress made so far, Inaba poured cold water on expectations that Toyota was still aiming to grab 10 percent of China's auto market by 2010.
When Toyota said some years ago that it was aiming for 10 percent, that was more of a "vision," he explained, describing the goal as difficult given that the auto maker was virtually shut out of the commercial vehicle and minivehicle segments which together account for 40 percent of market.
Low-priced commercial vehicles and minivehicles from local makers meant it was hard for Toyota to compete in those segments without compromising quality, he said.
For a look at plans of a Chinese automaker to export cars to the United States
Toyota makes move to get bigger share of Chinese market by building its popular Camry sedan at new Chinese factory.
May 23, 2006: 1:27 PM EDT
TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota's first Chinese-built Camry sedan rolled off assembly lines on Tuesday, a car that represents the start of a second and somewhat flashier sales channel for the auto maker in the key auto market.
It is also an important milestone in terms of volume growth for Toyota that help puts it on an equal footing in China with rival Japanese automakers.
"We have come to the same level as Nissan and Honda...in terms of volume, quality and overall performance," Yoshimi Inaba, Toyota's executive vice president in charge of China operations, told reporters in Tokyo last week.
Had the question been posed a year ago, he said, Toyota, a latecomer to China, would have had to say it was far behind.
The Camry, a family sedan with a reputation for rock-solid reliability, is Toyota's huge U.S. success story, the best-selling car there for eight of the past nine years.
The world's No. 2 automaker is hoping that success will add a certain cachet as it targets customers in China's private sector, typically corporate managers in their 40's.
The cars are being built at a new plant in Guangzhou, jointly owned with the Guangzhou Automotive Group.
The plant has an annual output capacity of 100,000, although Toyota aims to build around 50,000 units this year. If the car takes off, a second shift could be introduced and production capacity lifted to some 150,000 units, Inaba said.
Exports of Camrys to China from Japan, currently between 2,000 and 3,000 vehicles a month, will end.
Toyota has plans for a second model in mind for the Guangzhou plant but has not provided details. The Nihon Kezai business daily has reported that the company plans to build the Yaris subcompact there, aiming for 70,000 units a year.
Toyota will sell the Camry, which will compete with Honda's Accord and Volkswagen's Passat, through 116 outlets, creating a distinct sales channel from the one it has with the FAW Group, its biggest partner in China.
Toyota said it hopes that each outlet will sell an average of 1,000 Camrys annually.
It will be priced between 197,800 yuan and 269,800 yuan, a similar price range to that of Honda's Accord. That's equivalent to about $24,600 to $33,600.
With FAW in Tianjin, Toyota builds cars like the Crown and the Corolla, and its sales channel is targeted more towards government officials.
Toyota sold 183,000 cars in China in 2005 and aims to sell close to 300,000 this year. The company's market share should rise to more than 4 percent this year from 3.1 percent, Inaba said.
Toyota's production capacity in China including the Guangzhou factory is currently 340,000 units. But the automaker also plans to lift its capacity at its second line in Tianjin by 50,000 units and has applied for government approval to build a third line there with capacity of 200,000 units.
By comparison, Honda currently has production capacity of 410,000 vehicles in China which will rise to 530,000 later this year while Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. now has output capacity of 240,000 and plans to lift it to 360,000 by next April.
But while confident about progress made so far, Inaba poured cold water on expectations that Toyota was still aiming to grab 10 percent of China's auto market by 2010.
When Toyota said some years ago that it was aiming for 10 percent, that was more of a "vision," he explained, describing the goal as difficult given that the auto maker was virtually shut out of the commercial vehicle and minivehicle segments which together account for 40 percent of market.
Low-priced commercial vehicles and minivehicles from local makers meant it was hard for Toyota to compete in those segments without compromising quality, he said.
For a look at plans of a Chinese automaker to export cars to the United States
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