Even as we read about Malaysia trying to establish itself as a hub for energy efficient vehicles, our ASEAN neighbours are busy raking in further investment from carmakers. Toyota, the biggest carmaker in Thailand, has announced plans to invest 12 billion baht in a new factory at Gateway 2 in Chachoengsao, Bangkok Post reports.
The factory, an expansion of Toyota’s existing plant at Gateway, will be fully operational by the third quarter of 2013 and have an annual capacity of 300,000 units a year, said Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand. The first model to roll out from the new facility will be a new eco car.
Market leader Toyota is late in the eco car game, and has seen Japanese rivals Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi enjoy strong sales with the March, Brio range and Mirage, respectively. Better late than never, they say.
Tanada also revealed that Toyota’s first Thai facility in Samrong, Samut Prakan recently kicked off assembly of the popular Hiace Commuter High-Roof van (yes, the standard tourist van, usually with funky cabins) after a capital investment of 1.5 billion baht. This means that Toyota Motor Thailand will no longer need to import the van from Malaysia.
The Samrong facility also makes Hilux pick-up trucks with a capacity of 240,000 units a year. Gateway in Chachoengsao is responsible for all passenger car models (230k capacity a year) while a third factory, in Chachoengsao’s Ban Pho district, does both the Hilux Vigo and Fortuner SUV with a capacity of 230,000 units a year.
Toyota Motor Thailand forecasts sales of 900,000 units this year – 500,000 for local consumption and 400,000 for export.
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nice. they even export to japan market.
but they don’t do EEV. only malaysia do EEV. they must import EEV from malaysia to run EEV in their EEV market.
go EEV.
O, welcome to Malaysia. RM6k challenge Mirage!
cant wait for it. :)
Hope our guys in the NAP ivory tower see the light !!
Our soon to be release revise NAP will be
a failure. Still trying to protect Proton.
Our government always think that Proton Malaysian, national treasure. The problem is non of the AP king who are benefiting from NAP is driving a Proton. Even the Bapa Proton and Anak Proton is driving a Proton. What the heck!
I mean, Even the Bapa Proton and Anak Proton is not driving a Proton.
what todo with proton?not related at all
u need thousands of semi- knowledgable & cheap labor to setup car factory,malaysia not able to supply that since our min wage already Rm900
thailand much lower than that
It is related, Proton is the bottleneck for Malaysia to grow in Motor industry.
In an interview with MAI CEO, he said (can’t bother to remember his name)…the government did not miss the boat in bringing in FDI in the auto industry, we still have EEV segment. hehehehe!!! how wrong he is now. Actions speak louder then words people… We rest our case.
NAP should be re-phrase as “The Snooze Policy 2013”
Oh!!! maybe the new NAP will incorporate “Project IC”? ;-)
Too late to do anything for the NAP now.
“Well done” BN govt.
Toyota would have invested in Malaysia if not for all of the restrictions due to P1.
Hello, imagine the life without p1…
1) car cheaper? In your dreams…, check out the price of vios, city, slyphy in Thailand, indonesia, etc…
2) more choices? Dun think so, look at our neighbor
3) most importantly!!!
-No AP king,no cronies sitting printing money…
-no NAP, more market liberation…
-no underdeclaring of car price, no corruption…
– no trade with JApan, no import of scrap car to Malaysia anymore, sure big diplomatic row…
– no trade with other countries selling spare parts(coz many people keep their old cars), no corruption some more…
So everyone… Think carefully….if there is no p1, you think the AP king, cronies, Japan, etc will keep quiet?
Think differently…
I did some research of the price of Vios, City and Sylphy between Thailand and Bolehland. They are [Thailand price/Bolehland price, all prices are in Ringgit Malaysia] 73,000/87,000 and 72,000/90,00 for the Vios G and City Grade S/SV. I can’t compare the Sylphy because Thailand already got hold of the better looking next-gen version. So if you say cars are cheaper, your argument here are invalid. But Petrol price and road tax are higher in Thailand.
Don’t think there are more choices with our neighbor, There are more variants of the Vios and City in Thailand, though they are mainly base spec. And maybe you’re right if there are not much more choices in Thailand or Indo, but they get their models faster, Brio and the new CRV is already on sale in both countries, Thailand already has the Sylphy and brings in the Alphard and Camry Hybrids(which makes their top-spec Camry)officially through a distributor, not through re-con.
Which prices were you looking at?? The cars in Thailand are 10k to 20k cheaper than here. And come on lah, all of the automotive jobs and business that have gone to Thailand and Indon could have come to this country. I am not only talking about the OEMs but the Tier 1,2,3… suppliers as well.
Why does this happen? Because we need to continue to protect P1!
TBH, I don’t mind removing fuel subsidy for normal road cars (Except trucks or public transport type) for cheaper cars. I believe removing subsidy will save billions which will offset the earnings through car import tax. But being you know who, they will just try to rip us off whenever they can.
Frankly, I don’t care about car prices. What I really do care is the amount of business and jobs we’re loosing out.
Take a typical car factory. Who does the landscaping? Who does the servicing i.e. oiling or greasing of the robotics? Supply of instrumentations? Calibration services? Roof maintenance? These are some of the jobs, and these are are not specialised area…. total lost and sad…
Supply of furniture: Kokuyo typical japanese crony. Security guard: Secom, another crony. stationary: same japanese company. Conveyor: Daifuku crony. Canteen tender: the supervisor family, HR adik beradik, the Union head cousin or ex staff who use to smuggle food in. tell me how to penetrate these japanese company without connection (or youre not part of approved suppliers or toyota group of company?)
what todo with proton?not related at all
u need thousands of semi- knowledgable & cheap labor to setup car factory,malaysia not able to supply that since our min wage already Rm900
thailand much lower than that
honda already invested a new super-plant for their eco car in melaka a year ago
u dont read the positive news?just read the negative news?
go pack your stuff & migrate thailand!!!!
ops.. you sound like “Miss. Listen..”
“You complaint about bolehland, then you migrate to other country la.. dont stay at bolehland..”
Come on, we feedback and complaint because this is our country, we love it and hope it can be improve as well. You think who you are? You have no right to ask someone else to migrate!!!
only Toyota already 900,000 units, there still Honda, Nissan, Mitsu and etc, how many Proton build and sell ?
Koreans themselves voted Camry as thier car of the year. That already tell you a story
Ada jugak mamat joker mcm ni….
why they all go to indon, thailand and not to bolehland to setup….
Because at bolehland…so many thing is not really boleh.
Because of NEP….. Ppl feel the policy s not fair so rather go thailand which is more open market. Here kena jaga proton n perodua…
honda did setup new hybrid plant in malaysia la bodoh
what’s with this ss guy exactly..?
can’t he see the losing magnitude..?
and i don’t see anyone being that irrational either
what todo with proton?not related at all
u need thousands of semi- knowledgable & cheap labor to setup car factory,malaysia not able to supply that since our min wage already Rm900
thailand & indon much lower than that
blame BN for setup min wage,but also blame PR want to set even higher than Rm900
Dont worry… this is nothing…
We have our NAP… No Automotive Policy… Our NAP sure can do everything one… This is what we called ‘strategic ambiguity’ hehehe
NAP, NAp, Nap, nap, ZZZ, ZZz, Zzz, zzzzzzz
When the buying stop, the killing can too…
If we work together, we can win this…
isn’t that so difficult to produce a green car….already has proven technology in cng…petronas is so rich & has abundant gas reserve but they want to “show-off” by becoming f1 main sponsor…just couldn’t understand why they don’t invest in infrastucture like cng refill station…not convincing enough, look no further than south korea where all their taxis are powered by lpg…aslo money wasted on developing petronas engine which is not their expertise…and eventually sold it to proton anyway…money burned!!!
all the lost opportunities
u know that recenly DAP gov rejected Rm75bil project proposal to be setup in penang?
talking about lost business opportunties lol
Perhaps DAP should follow other which can allow LYNAS to be setup in Malaysia… DAP shouldnt think for rakyat too much….
Wake up ! Thai is Heavy wieght n we are in diff league … for god sake, wake up, let’s make our life less miserable by paying less in car installment…
Foreigner Car Makers do not want to be held ransom by you, that’s why u c what happen today….if not 49% mandatory for blah blah blah…
u need thousands of semi- knowledgable & cheap labor to setup car factory,malaysia not able to supply that since our min wage already Rm900
thailand & indon cheap labor salary much lower than that
blame BN for setup min wage,but also blame PR want to set even higher than Rm900
Another good fairy tale for NAP to continue sleeping and dreaming…
u need to revoke the min wage first,then talk koko here,min wage is killing the industry,esp malaysia
u need thousands of semi- knowledgable & cheap labor to setup car factory,malaysia not able to supply that since our min wage already Rm900
thailand & indon much lower than that
blame BN for setup min wage,but also blame PR want to set even higher than Rm900
we take care of the 18k jobs , but 80k jobs fly away
18k job will give kroni rm18 million per year, 80k fly away job will only give rm80k per year to kroni. What he choose, what he chose.
Imagine if all the factories open here in malaysia…..how many jobs it will create…sigh..
u want all factories to be opened here,u need cheap labor
malaysia cannot provide cheap labor since our minimum wage already Rm900
at thailand it much lower
even PR gov want to setup min wage at 1200-which much more stupid move
PKR to increase wages to 1.2k is a popular move, but I still support the move, simply because the cost of living in Malaysia is getting higher like no body business. If we do it right, I don’t think why we are competitive.
Bro SS, min wages RM900 you said high? I doubt can sustain or not in KL life??? I wonder they still got money send back to their hometown. That’s why all robberies, kidnaps rate keep increasing because when not enough to spend then find other “shortcut”.
We just legalise 1 millions foreigner…….
Whatever hoped, we seemed to have missed the bus and it’s moved farther. On the whole, automitive industry is tool-heavy in both cost & knowhow aspects, and especially in knowhow aspect, we’re again left far behind by both our neighbours. If you were an investor, would you risc imported toolings at higher cost?
Logically, a nation should develop its own technical stength before attracting foreign investors. Think if you’re Japanes, are you going to teach other nations your trade secrets you’ve gethered for years with struggle? This is one of our failed reason, we try to do our own things but relied heavily on outside technologies.
By the time our government finalize & try out their ‘plans’, Thailand already got eco car running on the road. Yea … so much abt our energy efficient car is more ecology friendly. Gov supporters can continue their ideal case planning & satisfy with excuses of delays. According to original, 1st revised … Nth revised planning, we should have our auto-industry fully open base on AFTA spirit without bullshitt, mocked-up excise duty upon ASEAN imported car.
it’s not cheap for their cars in malaysia either no matter where toyota build its factory.
Another proof our non competitiveness. We are just cover with dressing policy without essence…this as living proof of our decades of failure in all areas at rakyat expense now rakyat can’t buy car and even houses as good policy protect car and open policy protect developers n authority interest. Haya …. Bye bye to next generation whe we run out of oil eat sand work as maid in Thailand and Indonesia.
Dc electrical & electronics engine