Toyota Motor Corp. is contemplating developing a low-cost, sport utility vehicle aimed at low-income regions like Latin America and Asia, Toyota executives said Thursday.
The automaker also plans to develop a compact car equipped with a diesel engine of at least 1,000cc for the Southeast Asian market, the executives said.
Toyota wants to fend off competition from other global automakers in Europe and the United States by making the sport-utility vehicle affordable to consumers in those countries, they said.
The new vehicle would have a relatively large engine of 2,000cc to 3,000cc and would be equipped for business and family use, they said.
The executives said the planned "global strategic" vehicle would possibly be unveiled in 2004, with several hundred thousand expected to sell annually.
"Adjustments concerning the features of the planned vehicle will be necessary to avoid letting the planned vehicle compete with models that are now being manufactured at our overseas plants," an executive said. "We are considering making the planned vehicle into a global strategic vehicle in the wake of the introduction of the Vitz compact car."
The Vitz is marketed as the Yaris in Europe and is popular on the global market.
As for the planned compact car intended for the Southeast Asian market, Toyota is considering pricing it at around 700,000 yen.
to make it affordable to as many drivers as possible, the executives said.
Toyota will develop it by teaming up with its subsidiary Daihatsu Motor Co. for sale with respective badges through their respective dealership networks, they added.