Toyota to launch 'Asia car'

Toyota to launch 'Asia car'

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said yesterday it would launch its "Asia car" in Thailand early next year, but declined to disclose further details of the project.

"We plan to launch the Asia car in Thailand in early 1997, but cannot comment on details of the future product," a Toyota spokeswoman said.

Production will take place at manufacturing subsidiary Toyota Motor Thailand Co. Ltd., she said, declining to specify planned output.

Toyota would launch the car next January in a bid to roll back rival Honda Motor Co. Ltd., a front-runner in the Asian market.

Japan's biggest automobile maker will unveil the 1,500cc Thai- made four-door sedan in December, marketing it as an "affordable family car" from January, the industrial daily said.

The price tag will be 360,000-to-370,000 baht (US$14,100-to- $14,500), about 20,000 baht lower than Honda's 1,300cc City, which was developed in Thailand for the Asian market and launched in April, it said.