By Kevin Huang

GUANGZHOU -- Toyota Motor Corp. will start making the 13th-generation luxury sedan Crown in China in the first half of 2009, and the new model could be a stretched-wheelbase version designed for the China market, says a senior sales executive with FAW Toyota Motor Sales Co.

 

Toyota unveiled the completely redesigned Crown in Japan in February this year. The new generation family car has an ordinary sedan version called "Crown Royal Saloon," a sports version named "Crown Athlete" and a hybrid version "Crown Hybrid."

 

At present, Toyota is producing the 12th-generation Royal Saloon sedan in the No.2 plant of Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co., its joint venture with China FAW Group Corp.

 

Besides some styling changes, the new generation Crown displayed in Japan earlier this year is 30 millimeters longer and 15 millimeters wider than its predecessor.

 

But the new Crown sedans to be produced in Tianjin next year could be even longer, according to the sales executive. He says the new model could be stretched-wheelbase version designed for the China market.

 

"Crown's main competitor in China is the stretched-wheelbase version of Audi A6, which is about 150 millimeters longer than Crown, so we probably will also have a stretched version," says the executive.

 

The executive says Tianjin FAW Toyota will also make the sports version Crown after the production of the new Royal Saloon starts. The company is also considering producing the hybrid version at a later stage.

 

Tianjin FAW Toyota now produces Vios and Corolla compact sedans in its No.1 plant and No.3 plant. It makes Crown and Reiz sedans in the No.2 plant. All three plants are in Tianjin.

 

In May, Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co. announced Tianjin FAW Toyota would expand the capacity of its No.2 plant to 150,000 units by the end of 2009 from 100,000 units currently.

 

After the capacity expansion, Crown's capacity will be lifted from 28,000 units to 78,000 units while Reiz's output capacity will be kept at 72,000 units, says another source from Tianjin FAW Toyota.

 

Tianjin FAW Toyota sold 26,947 units of Crown sedans and 25,828 units of Reiz sedans in the first half of this year, according to Automotive Resources Asia (ARA), a unit of J.D Power and Associates.

From: Automotive News China