Foton Motor to tap high-end SUV market

Shanghai October 29 (Gasgoo.com) Beiqi Foton Motor Co, the world's biggest commercial vehicle maker by sales last year, is developing a sport utility vehicle (SUV), code-named U201, which shares platform with Foton's high-end pickup P201, looks similar to the Toyota Prado in size and will be put on the domestic market in 2013 following P201's launch, the Beijing News reported Friday.

Reporters learned from a Foton affiliate which owns Sapp and Legend brands that the Beijing-based automaker is set to tap the high-end SUV market. A person close to the matter said the U201 and P201 are mainly derived from Toyota's Hilux pickup, adding that the full-size U201 SUV will be Foton's first true passenger vehicle model and is expected to be available in both gasoline and diesel engines.

Beiqi Foton Motor Co, a subsidiary of Beijing Automobile Group Co., Ltd., already has one SUV product, the Legend, but it was built on a pickup platform and positioned low with little sales, so its production is now based on orders rather than forecasts.