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Toyota To Produce Hybrid Camry In Rayong Next Year


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Toyota to make hybrids in Thai plant beefup

Toyota Motor Corp announced on Tuesday it will begin producing the "Camry Hybrid" next year at Toyota Motor Thailand production base in Thailand.

Production of the Camry Hybrid at the Thai Gateway Plant will commence in 2009, with an initial annual production target of 9,000 vehicles.

The company also announced it will spend 5.35 billion baht (17.3 billion yen) to construct build a new diesel engine factory able to turn out 150,000 units a year.

Article found here at Bangkok Post

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Toyota to make hybrids in Thai plant beefup

Toyota Motor Corp announced on Tuesday it will begin producing the "Camry Hybrid" next year at Toyota Motor Thailand production base in Thailand.

Production of the Camry Hybrid at the Thai Gateway Plant will commence in 2009, with an initial annual production target of 9,000 vehicles.

The company also announced it will spend 5.35 billion baht (17.3 billion yen) to construct build a new diesel engine factory able to turn out 150,000 units a year.

Article found here at Bangkok Post

This is a bit confusing. Will this be a diesel camry (or is the diesel factory for other vehicles?). Some decent 15-20km/l hybrid vehicles are what we need.

Edited by culicine
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A token move, or an attempt to forestall the duty free (or more likely reduced duty) import of E-85 cars by Ford and GM, as none of the Japanese manufacturers have E-85 vehicles.

Thailand does not need an even more expensive version of a luxury Toyota. What we do need are low cost cars capable of running on the E-85 or even E20 that the govt is so keen to introduce.

Anything other than dropping the 80% duty and 20% excise tax to get E-85 cars here RFN, is nothing but pandering to the auto industry.

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Yesterday there were interviews with several auto makers in the Nation and none of them had anything good to say about E85 policy, including GM.

For starters excise tax is the same as for E20 cars while free import of E85 parts has very little effect on the overall cost of complety build imports and imports are still imports - small, e85 compatible Volvo C30 costs substantially more than Camry.

Then there's the price of ethanol - at the moment it's too high to make a difference at the pump, and too low for producers to sell ethanol for profit.

Overall "introducing" E85 was a knee jerk reaction by the government, mostly to pretend that they are doing something. Meanwhile SEVENTH eco car project, from VW, is in the works, altogether they are supposed to build 700,000 cars a year, and there's no mention of E85 in the specs at all.

Building hybrids, on the other hand, can make Thailand a leader in the region, and everywhere they export their cars, like Middle East and Africa. They should have done it years ago, they'd be selling them like hot cakes now.

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I read somewhere it's going to be more expensive than existing already expensive non-hybrid Camrys, as some key components like hybrid motor and batteries need to be imported, subjected to import duty (though not as high as duty for CBU car), even with lower excise tax rate than existing Camrys. I would have wanted it if it was Prius.

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Today in the Nation they say it will be below 2mil, they can even manage to keep some entry level models without GPS and DVD cheaper than the current top end 2.4l trim.

When it was first introduced in the US they said performance is on par with 3.5l V6 - extra electric power is delivered on demand almost instantaneoulsy. That would be sweet.

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Why don't they just introduce ultra-efficient city cars... for... the city?

If they made a low-displacement turbocharged compact car without the insane import taxes people would line up at the dealerships to get them. Besides, who needs a 3.5L V6 in a place where a car's average speed during all of its use is probably not more than 30km/h?

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Why don't they just introduce ultra-efficient city cars... for... the city?

If they made a low-displacement turbocharged compact car without the insane import taxes people would line up at the dealerships to get them. Besides, who needs a 3.5L V6 in a place where a car's average speed during all of its use is probably not more than 30km/h?

If Ford sell their new Fiesta diesel in Thailand next year, people will be queueing around the block for them

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If Ford sell their new Fiesta diesel in Thailand next year, people will be queueing around the block for them

Perhaps, but even more so if it was a honda city/jazz or toyota vios/yaris. Given the way petrol prices are now I would want my "second" daily driver car to get 30"km/l and be under 500K. But I don't see that happening anytime soon. Even taxi drivers are complaining of cng shortages and the price of LPG is set to rise substantially shortly.

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Hybrid cars just don't look like they're worth the effort. They have a complicated braking and transmission system coupled with the extra weight of batteries and the motor. I couldn't even fathom how complicated the computer management system would be. The systems are expensive and in the long run maintenance is expensive. In many cases it can take years for a hybrid version of a conventional car to pay off.

Superefficient diesel/petrol minis are the way to go for their light weight, relative simplicity, cheaper/easier? construction, and lower maintenance costs.

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I agree 100 percent that this is a knee jerk reaction from a government that has no idea what the real automotive world is all about. Ford's diesel Focus was a VERY good starting point but no one seems to have followed up. Where are the diesel Toyota's, Honda's, Chevy's and Nissan's? Getting 20 plus kilometers per liter from conventional or bio diesel sounds pretty good to me.

I'd bet LPG is going WAY up in price within the next year since so many people are doing the conversions. All LPG was domestic but it will soon have to be imported.

Edited by Gary A
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I believe hybrid Camry is cheaper than 3.5 version in the US, and techonology is constantly improving. If it's promising, time to invest and corner the market is now, not ten years later. They've already wasted ten years since first Prius came out.

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If Toyota can build hybrid Camry in Thailand why not the locally assembled Civic Hybrid by Honda?

BTW is hybrid motor more fuel efficient in city driving or on highways?

Edited by Nordlys
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The Bangkok Post wrote a review for the Civic Hybrid a while ago and results were unsatisfactory. I don't remember the number but the mileage was not too much better than the normal-engined Civic in normal use across Bangkok.

Hybrid motors should be more efficient in city driving because the slowing down presents chances to capture energy to charge the batteries to be later used during acceleration.

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If Bangkok had a mass transit system on par with Hong Kong, Singapore, or Tokyo it would help with reducing CO2 emissions, reducing oil consumption, and reducing traffic.

Toyota is stepping in the right direction, but it's a small small step for consumers. I commend Toyota for being the first car manufacturer to offer a Hybrid in Thailand.

I've seen hybrids running around in Bangkok now for at least a year, has anyone done any case study about hybrids in Bangkok? Surely, the cost of importing a hybrid will not justify in fuel savings (do the math). Making the Camry locally will significantly reduce the purchase cost, but how long can the battery cells lasts? In USA, the battery packs have a 8 year or 10 year warranty, depending on which state you live in, but may cost $2000 - $8000 USD to replace them... again, do the math. I definetly will not be buying any hybrids over 5 years old for fear of needing to replace the battery packs.

And how about those traffic jams... how will Hybrids perform in our Bangkok traffic jams?

So, then question is; Why is Toyota making the Hybrid?

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I think Toyota decided to start with Camry because that kind of buyers can afford extra cost, like Alphard Hybrid buyers do. From that point of view Civic or Prius won't sell because in that range buyers are very cost sensitive.

Later on, when the technology improves to make Prius cost effective, Toyota will have a huge leg up already.

Does the Moore law apply to hybrid systems? It seems to work with mobile phones - see how much they improved in a decade, imagine similar progress with hybrids.

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They're not building it for local market only, they'll be exported too.

I think Toyota decided to start with Camry because that kind of buyers can afford extra cost, like Alphard Hybrid buyers do. From that point of view Civic or Prius won't sell because in that range buyers are very cost sensitive.

I think Toyota decided to start with Camry because they already build Camrys in Thailand.

Later on, when the technology improves to make Prius cost effective, Toyota will have a huge leg up already.

But it's also that range buyers who are most sensitive to rising cost of fuel.

Edited by Nordlys
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Prius is a completely different platform from Corolla, btw, it's easier for them to work with Camry, though the government mentioned modifying Corollas to hybrid system, too.

Honda, oth, has hybrid Civic, if they decide to build hybrids here, let's see what they choose if they decide to build hybrids here - Civic or Accord. Judging by slow sales of 2l Civics, selling more expensive Hybrids will be very difficult, it's easier to sell Accords, at that level people accept 200-300k difference between various trims.

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Hybrid cars just don't look like they're worth the effort. They have a complicated braking and transmission system coupled with the extra weight of batteries and the motor. I couldn't even fathom how complicated the computer management system would be. The systems are expensive and in the long run maintenance is expensive. In many cases it can take years for a hybrid version of a conventional car to pay off.

Superefficient diesel/petrol minis are the way to go for their light weight, relative simplicity, cheaper/easier? construction, and lower maintenance costs.

It's all greeny feel good marketing BS. Look at Prius the leading light of hybrid, Top Gear drove one for a day and got 42 mpg, then they rented a Fiat Uno diesel drove the same route and got 63 mpg.

If Ford sell their new Fiesta diesel in Thailand next year, people will be queueing around the block for them

Amen.

If they made a low-displacement turbocharged compact car without the insane import taxes people would line up at the dealerships to get them

They do in Japan of course they are called Kei cars.

Somethimes I wonder about Toyota in Thailand. They stopped selling gasoline powered pickups just as market demand started to increase when people wanted to convert them to LPG and get relatively cheap motoring. Oh but wait if you want to drive cheaply you can still buy a gasoline Fortuna for twice the money !!

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Toyota stopped making petrol Vigos long ago, when diesel was still subsidized.

Small diesels might appear as efficient as hybrids, but they are not saving energy, they are just consuming less fuel. The energy spent during breaking is still wasted.

In five years time they can possibly fit hybrid system on Fod Fiesta and improve its fuel efficiency by 50%.

Btw, to introduce diesel Fiesta, or any other small car, for that matter, they need to build engines in Thailand or at least in Asean. That means whole new plants with new suppliers, whole new investment plans etc etc. It's not easy, you can send your thanks to import tax department.

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Hybrid cars just don't look like they're worth the effort. They have a complicated braking and transmission system coupled with the extra weight of batteries and the motor. I couldn't even fathom how complicated the computer management system would be. The systems are expensive and in the long run maintenance is expensive. In many cases it can take years for a hybrid version of a conventional car to pay off.

Superefficient diesel/petrol minis are the way to go for their light weight, relative simplicity, cheaper/easier? construction, and lower maintenance costs.

It's all greeny feel good marketing BS. Look at Prius the leading light of hybrid, Top Gear drove one for a day and got 42 mpg, then they rented a Fiat Uno diesel drove the same route and got 63 mpg.

Hybrid cars are a stepping stone just.

The company that's in the lead on hybrids will be the company in the lead when there's a car without an internal combustion engine at all. Whether it be fuel cells, or a breakthrough in battery power, or simply fully electric cars (with limited range), the future is an electric engine turning the wheels.

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Honda just started selling (leasing) limited number of zero emission fuel cell vehicle FCX Clarity in California.

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

They'll start selling Clarity in Japan too this autumn.

Honda also just announced sales of Civic Hybrid in India, although to be imported from Japan.

Edited by Nordlys
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Ford are planning to offer an automatic version of the Focus diesel later on this year. The price is expected to be about 50,000 Baht more than the manual version. That would make it about 1.1 million Baht. I certainly would be interested in this car as I would expect the fuel consumption to be better than my 2.0 Lancer.

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