February 16, 2011
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese automaker Daihatsu, a subsidiary of Toyota, will begin manufacturing a low-priced compact car in Indonesia in 2013 for sale in Southeast Asian nations, a business daily said Wednesday.
Tapping its expertise in minicars, Daihatsu plans to develop a fuel-efficient vehicle in Indonesia and supply 70 percent of the output to be sold under the Toyota brand, the Nikkei daily said without citing sources.
To sell for up to 900,000 yen ($10,750) -- 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 percent of the market between them, the Nikkei said.
Daihatsu announced last month that it would pull out of the European market within two years because of the strong yen cutting profits.
