The relative maturity of the North American, European and Japanese markets are forcing Toyota Motor Corp. to look elsewhere for growth and in particular, emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India.
For this reason, the Japanese automaker said on Friday it plans to introduce eight new compact size models designed specifically for developing markets by 2015.
"In emerging markets, there are four or five automakers vying to take the lead in sales volumes," Toyota Executive Vice President Yukitoshi Funo told Reuters.
"Particularly in the Southeast Asian region, Volkswagen and others are looking to challenge our lead so we can't be resting on our laurels," he added.
Toyota said that the upcoming compact models will carry a base sticker of around 1 million yen (about US$12,500 / €10,000) or higher, with production to be localized in markets such as India, Brazil and China.
Asked about rumors concerning the development of a lower cost model priced around 500,000 yen (roughly US$6300 / €5,000) for India, Funo told reporters that the company has no such plans.
"We won't go to the 500,000 yen segment - it's not our category," he said. "We want to beef up our presence in segments where we can be competitive. There are many other options for customers looking in that price range, including used cars."
At last month's Auto China 2012 in Beijing, Toyota showed three compact concept models that may preview some of the vehicles it is preparing for emerging markets.
4 Comments:
i like what they are doing. making a budget car look premium and eye catchingly exotic. Bravo Toyota. I hope these make it to production as the sharp creases and sweeps look magnificent
It is took bad that NONE of the manufacturers of inexpensive cars have any interest in bringing any of them to the USA. Apparently they believe that none of the 330,000,000+ Americans woud have any interest in even the possibility of being able to buy such a car. I guess they have overlooked the hundreds of thousands of us who in the past have owned cars like the Chevy Metro.
these look a lot better than their offerings for the "mature" markets..perhaps they could introduce some of these aesthetics for us?
The US is a mature market, and there are far less than 330 million drivers there. In fact, I bet that only a little less than 200 million people in the US actually hold driving licences, and some of that number would never reduce themselves to something as down market as this car.
For the record, last year the F150 sold 390K units. That's as high as sales per year get in the US. Cars like this should expect to sell much, much less than that.
That's 390K units of the 200 million that needed a new vehicle. How many do you think hold drivers licences?
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