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Toyota's Crown launched in China
Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor Corporation will start construction of its third plant in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin as it seeks to gain a bigger slice of the world's third-largest vehicle market.
The new plant, to be built with its partner Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Company, will be able to produce 500,000 vehicles a year by 2007. Toyota made the announcement in a statement distributed to reporters Monday at a briefing to mark the opening of its second plant in the city, and launch of Toyota brand's flagship Crown Sedan. The second plant has capacity for 100,000 Crown sedans a year. It will be the first time the automaker builds the Crown outside Japan. The car will sell for 328,000 yuan to 480,000 yuan or between nearly 40,000 and 58,000 US dollars and Toyota aims to sell 20,000 in China this year. Toyota is adding production and introducing new models to increase its share of China's car market to 10 percent by 2010 from about 3 percent now. It still lags behind Volkswagen AG, General Motors, and Honda Motor Company in market share. The company's first joint venture plant in Tianjin has annual production capacity for 120,000 Corolla and Vios compact cars. |
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