Toyota Fortuner assembled in Kazakhstan to meet Japanese standards - Toyota Motor Corporation
Starting from scratch in 1930s, over the next few decades Toyota Motor Co. managed to earn a remarkable standing in the world's auto market flooded chiefly by German and American brands.
Debuting AA Sedan passenger car at the local market in 1936, the company marched into the American market with its Toyota Crown vehicle 20 years later. The first Motomachi Plant for production of passenger cars in Japan was unveiled in Toyota in 1959. The plant is renowned for production of Mark II vehicles - a very popular model among Kazakhstani auto fans.
When in Japan, one can feel progress everywhere. But to feel the spirit of modern Japan, you need to visit a car assembly, where cars are totally built by machines.
One of the brightest examples in that respect is the Motomachi Plant that assembles 70 000 cars per year, including Estima, Crown and Mark X models. The world's leading automaker Toyota has its headquarters at Toyota City, Aichi.
According to spokesman of Toyota Motor Corporation Keisuke Kirimoto, last year the corporation sold 8.948 million cars worldwide. Sales of Toyota cars in Kazakhstan totaled 13.4 thousand vehicles last year soaring by 45%, compared to 2012. Statistics prove that Kazakhstani car lovers remain faithful to Toyota brand.
"Kazakhstan is a dynamically developing market and Toyota Corporation has made a fateful decision to launch the production of Toyota Fortuner model here," Mr. Kirimoto said.
"Kazakhstan-made Toyota Fortuner will be emerging market-orientated. Thereat the key is the high quality of our products. We do not want to once again go through the situation occurred in 2009-2010 when Toyota recalled millions of its cars the worldwide due to glitches," the press secretary noted.
He also briefed on that Toyota Fortuner models will be built in Kazakhstan. The production process will start this April. The corporation plans to assembly about 3,000 cars in 2014.
"We have no short-range plans to build another Toyota models in Kazakhstan. But if the appetite for Kazakhstan-made Toyota Fortuner rises we will probably consider the ways to put on stream production start ups of Toyota Corolla, Camry, Land Cruiser Prado models," Mr. Kirimoto said.
"I would like to highlight, we consider Kazakhstan as an individual market. Toyota has its own business strategy in Kazakhstan realized apart of Russia and the Customs Union. Last year we sold 171,000 of cars in Russia," he went on. As for prospects for tuning up hybrid cars production in Kazakhstan and Russia, the Toyota spokesman noted that the corporation has no certain plans yet. "We do not put into consideration any options for Kazakhstan and Russia show poor demand for hybrid cars. But, our corporation is good at hybrid automobile manufacturing. Toyota Prius, Toyota's hybrid car, has been on market for more 15 years already," Mr Kirimoto resumed.
"Toyota sees its future with emerging markets. "The emerging markets give a great opportunity for the corporation to support our production and business," he added.
"Toyota prioritizes the Latin America, first of all, Brazil and South East Asia, especially, Indonesia. The Middle East region market still shows demand for Toyota cars. We see great prospects in China with its huge market. Last year we sold 917,000 cars," he resumed.