Toyota to Design Low-Cost Cars for Russia
Toyota has officially confirmed the intention to design a car for Russia that will cost $6,000 to $7,000. Toyota has become the fourth automobile giant that voiced similar plans, signaling Russia’s car makers will be threatened by the world consortiums rather than by the Chinese ones.
Toyota will design a new car for emerging markets, including Russia, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabew told Nikkei yesterday. It will be a low-cost car with the price of $6,000 to $7,000. The sales are slated to begin in 2010.
At stake is a model of the B-class, similar to Renault Logan, said Valery Tarakanov, who is an automobile industry’s analyst.
So, Toyota will soon become the fourth automobile consortium to sell low-cost cars here. Renault has launched the Logan assembly (from $11,000) at Moscow Autoframos. In September, Volkswagen announced the plans to assemble the ˆ7,000 cars in Russia and Nissan voiced similar intention past week (Nissan’s cars will cost from $5,000 to $7,000).
Watanabew didn’t specify the location of the plant to assemble a new model. But Toyota’s facilities in St. Petersburg are estimated to reach full production capacity exactly by 2010. Toyota will assemble its low-cost cars in Russia, Brazil, India and China, Tarakanov said, attributing this intention of the automobile giant to its desire to stop expansion of Chinese cars.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 18, 2007
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