Daihatsu to launch budget car in SEA - Top Japanese automaker Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota, will begin manufacturing a low-priced compact car in..

Daihatsu to launch budget car in SEA

Top Japanese automaker Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota, will begin manufacturing a low-priced compact car in Indonesia in 2013 for sale in South-east Asian nations.

Tapping its expertise in minicars, Daihatsu plans to develop a fuel-efficient vehicle in Indonesia and supply 70 per cent of the output to be sold under the Toyota brand, reports AFP, quoting the Nikkei business daily.

To sell for up to 900,000 yen (RM31,900) - the cheapest Toyota car in the global market, the new vehicle will be a little smaller than the Etios, a strategic small sedan that Toyota launched in India late last year, it said.

Daihatsu, which already has a factory in Jakarta capable of assembling 280,000 vehicles a year, plans to spend 20 billion yen to build a new plant, which will have an initial annual capacity of 100,000 units, the paper said.

Toyota and Daihatsu are the first and second best-selling automakers in Indonesia, controlling 53 per cent of the market between them.

Source: The Straits Times/ANN
Published Feb 16 2011