Toyota Camry Hybrid gets nip/tuck for ASEAN market intro
Toyota Camry Hybrid for Thailand - Click above for a high-res image gallery
It may have taken a year to make it happen, but the locally-built Toyota Camry Hybrid is finally ready to go on sale in Thailand. This new version of the Camry Hybrid is the first of its kind not assembled in Japan and features unique new front and rear fascias that are derived from the Australian Aurion with a grille that's vaguely reminiscent of the three-bar chrome schnoz used by Ford in America.
Although final pricing has not yet been announced, Toyota expects to sell the new Camry Hybrid in Thailand with just a small premium over the standard model thanks to a reduced 10 percent excise tax on locally-built hybrid vehicles. Thanks to this favorable pricing situation, Toyota expects the Hybrid to make up 60-70 percent of all Camry sales in the region. Soon, the Japanese automaker will begin exporting the Thai-built Camry Hybrid to other countries in Southeast Asia.
Gallery: Toyota Camry Hybrid for Thailand
[Source: Paul Tan]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
win39 6:28PM (6/01/2009)
Thankfully the Toyota emblem on an uvula is gone.
Reply
ale 7:59PM (6/01/2009)
nice, so building in japan has gotten too expensive.. lets find a cheaper country to build in.. hmm
anyways, that camry looks pretty nice, I like the aussie toyota look...
Reply
downtoearth 7:42AM (6/02/2009)
I bet this has more to do with tariffs and duties rather than labour costs.
So is with the European Union. Any imported car is penalized with ~10% duty to repell overseas competition in a socialists' way. That's why Toyota, Honda, Kia and others moved production facilities to the EU.
Same is with China as far as I know.
Likely Thailand also limits imports in the same fashion.