Toyota to try to double sales in China by 2015; leveraging local subsidies for hybrids

9 September 2012

Nikkei. At a conference in Chengdu, China, Toyota Toyota Motor Executive Vice President Atsushi said that the company is targeting selling 1.5 million to 1.8 million new vehicles in China in 2015, up from 880,000 last year.

Starting next year, the automaker will roll out low-priced China-only models based on the Etios, a compact designed for the Indian market. It will build new joint-venture factories, boosting local production capacity to around 1.5 million vehicles from the current 920,000.

Toyota’s share of the Chinese passenger car market slipped from 10.3% in 2008 to 6.8% last year, according to research firm LMC Automotive...Its comeback strategy makes use of its strength in hybrid cars. But the Chinese government's definition of alternative-energy vehicles does not include standard hybrids, only electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

Guangzhou, a teeming metropolis in Guangdong Province, recently introduced measures to promote alternative-energy cars—but there, the definition covers hybrids. The city will exempt these vehicles from its stringent restrictions on license plate issuance, which are aimed at reducing congestion, and offer buyers subsidies of 10,000 yuan, or about 120,000 yen. Toyota’s Camry hybrid qualifies.