Toyota Motor Corp. on Thursday established a sales subsidiary, Toyota Motor Sales De Mexico, in Mexico City.
The Japanese automaker is setting up a sales outlet in Mexico in expectation that the Mexican government will lift a ban at the end of 2003 on the import of assembled vehicles manufactured by companies that do not have a local production base.
Toyota said the new subsidiary will initially be expected to handle imports of Toyota compact sedans and compact pickup trucks produced in the United States.
The company said it hopes to sell several thousand cars a year on the Mexican market after the ban is lifted, in accordance with the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Several foreign automakers, including Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, have production facilities in Mexico. Car output in Mexico totaled 1,889,486 vehicles in 2000, up 26.5 percent from the previous year.