FAW Toyota to launch mini RAV4 SUV in H1 '09

Shanghai, November 28 (Gasgoo.com) Toyota Motor has included its good-selling RAV4 model in a series of SUV models of a Chinese venture's product lineup for the China market. The RAV4 SUV will be built by FAW Toyota and launched in the first half of 2009, said xinhuanet.com today.

The RAV4 ("Recreational Active Vehicle with 4-wheel drive") is a smart mini SUV which shares the same platform with Corolla. The current imported model in the China market is the third-generation RAV4 with standard and luxury versions, both powered by the same 2.4LVVT-I engine with Camry. To be made by FAW Toyota as one of its new models for 2009, the Toyota RAV4 will go to the Chinese market next March at the earliest.

Toyota believes that exploring the SUV market will help expand its growth in China. The country's SUV market is growing rapidly and the Toyota RAV4 model will not miss the opportunities, though its development, production and sales as an integrated process will take a long time. An executive of FAW Toyota said the joint venture is speeding up this process.

Since it was introduced to China many years ago, the RAV4 SUV has been acclaimed as a good brand and has seen stable sales. Once produced in China, the RAV4 will rival Dongfeng Honda's CR-V directly, said FAW-Toyota's dealers. As the locally made RAV4 SUV will hit the Chinese market soon, the imported RAV4 SUV model will be sold at a discount of over 10,000 yuan from its current 317,800-348,800 yuan price. 

Early last year a Japanese report said the latest Toyota RAV4 would be introduced to FAW Toyota for production by 2009 after the joint venture got approval from China's auto industry regulator to produce this SUV with an annual capacity of 42,000 units.