Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday launched a fully remodeled Crown luxury sedan in the Japanese market, featuring an all-new design and improved safety features.

By renovating its most popular sedan for the first time since 2008, Toyota aims to expand its customer base in the midst of the shrinking domestic sedan market. The automaker plans to sell 4,000 units a month of the new Crown, which is designed and developed with Japanese customers in mind.

The 14th generation Crown is available with a gasoline engine or with a newly developed hybrid system. Production of hybrid models will start from late January, the automaker said.

The new vehicle is equipped with improved safety technology to help avoid crashes, as well as a system that automatically applies the brakes in the event of pedal misapplication in a parking space.

Since its debut in 1955, the Crown has developed a reputation as one of the top-selling luxury cars in Japan over more than half a century. Toyota had sold a total of around 5.18 million units of the Crown series as of the end of November, it said.