Toyota Motor flexing muscles in China

Toyota Motor Corp., the largest automaker in Japan, is flexing its muscles these days so as to polish its brand in China, one of the largest auto markets around the globe.

The Japanese titan is working on a plan named Entry Family Car (EFC). The plan is aimed to bring family cars with displacement of 1.0 to 1.3 liters to emerging markets like China, and the yearly output is predicted to stand at 150,000.

With the plan, Toyota Motor will possibly introduce strong mini products into China. Mini products will be critical for its development in China, said one of executives at Toyota China.

Earlier reports said that the Japanese automaker would develop a mini family car targeted at China and fixed a low price range. The new car is predicted to have displacement of 1.2 liters and hold about four persons. Its production is scheduled to start before 2015.

The automaker will make a thorough survey to the market with the help of its outlets in China, so as to decide the shape, configuration, and the price of the new product. It expects the car to drive up its sales in the inland areas of the country.

Moreover, Toyota Motor will rapidly expand its sales networks in China. It will greatly lift the number of outlets in inland areas as well as small and medium cities.

For the moment, the Japanese auto titan has about 500 franchised stores in the country. More efforts will be made in second- and third-tier cities, and the sales and service networks will be optimized across the country.

By the end of 2009, the number of franchised stores under the brand of Toyota will jump from 506 to 589, and that of those under its luxury brand Lexus from 50 to 60.

Besides, Toyota Motor will start the combination of the sales networks both for China-made and imported vehicles next year. Currently, it is entrusting 57 dealers to sell its imported products, and all of them are dealers of Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.

After the combination, more than 300 dealers of FAW Toyota, one of Toyota Motor's ventures in China, will be entitled to sell imported products of the Japanese auto giant.

The imported products do not see a big sales volume, but generate much more profits than China-made models. Next year, the auto giant will drive more imported vehicles, including not only upgraded products but also new models, into China.