Toyota, SCC to build hybrid car

Toyota Motor will invest an additional sum in Thailand to boost the production of its diesel engines and start production of Camry Hybrid.

At the press conference yesterday, Siam Toyota Manufacturing (STM), a joint venture between Toyota Motor and Siam Cement, announced the plan to invest as much as Bt5.4 billion to expand production capacity for common-rail diesel engines from 200,000 units per year to 350,000 units per year.

STM will also create 700 more jobs on top of its present labour force of 2,300. Including petrol engines, STM will have an overall production capacity of 650,000 engines a year.

Managing director Shigeru Murai said STM would expand the site area of its plant at the Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate in Chon Buri province.

"STM will finish all the necessary preparations and start operating under the increased production capacity by early 2010," he said.

As a global production and supply base for the Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicle (IMV) Project, begun in 2004, STM provides diesel engines to IMV-producing countries.  In 2007, STM produced 229,000 diesel engines, of which 72,000 were exported to six countries, including India and within Asean.

The Toyota IMV Project is aimed at creating a worldwide optimal production and supply network.  Currently, the IMV series consists of three types of pickup, a minivan and a sport-utility vehicle.

Meanwhile, Toyota will spend Bt90 million to start production of the Camry Hybrid at its Gateway plant in Chachoengsao as part of a global effort to make these vehicles popular.

It plans to sell at least 9,000 units per year when the car is launched in 2009.

"Thailand should be the first Asean country to build hybrid vehicles," TMT president Mitsuhiro Sonoda said at a joint press conference in Bangkok with Siam Toyota Manufacturing. 

"As the Camry has received a warm welcome from local customers, we are sure they will be satisfied not only with the product but also its environmental performance," said Sonoda.

Since the Toyota Prius - the world's first mass-produced petrol-electric hybrid - was introduced in 1997, the firm has been promoting hybrid technology. Toyota said it planned to sell 1 million or more hybrid vehicles annually by next decade.

The Japanese company, which is expected to overtake General Motors as the world's largest auto maker this year, will also produce the Camry Hybrid in Australia with production of 10,000 units per year, apart from existing production in Japan and the United States.

In Thailand, the Camry Hybrid will enjoy an excise duty of 10 per cent, compared with 30 per cent for the regular 2-litre and 35 per cent for the regular 2.4-litre models.