Following on Daihatsu’s plans to make Indonesia a base for its business expansion, the automaker has announced that it will establish a research and development centre on the site of its new plant being built in the country.

The Nikkei again reports that the R&D facility will be set up after the factory is ready for operation at the end of next year. Daihatsu says it will gradually transfer over from Japan certain design functions for new vehicles as well as redesigned models produced locally. Some of the subsidiary’s 70 developers have begun training in Japan ahead of this.

Local subsidiary PT Astra Daihatsu Motor has just begun work on the plant, located on the outskirts of Jakarta on an 800,000 sq. m site. The plant will have an output capacity of 100,000 units a year, and is slated to build small cars for the local market as well as for export. It will also contain a test course.

No surprise that Daihatsu is focusing very much on Indonesia – the country is now the automaker’s largest overseas manufacturing base, and its annual production capacity has bumped up to 330,000 units this month in the country, up from 280,000.

Daihatsu is set to make Indonesia an integral part of its business expansion globally, according to a report in the Nikkei. The Japanese small car specialist, which posted a record 103.4 billion yen operating profit for the fiscal year ending March, is already very much a leading marque in Indonesia, but is looking at the country to provide a springboard for further growth elsewhere.

Away from its domestic market, Indonesia is Daihatsu’s largest overseas production and sales base, and the country also serves as its export hub to emerging markets. In 2010, the company’s Indonesian arm posted an operating profit of 33.8 billion yen, effectively triple the 11.3 billion yen it earned in 2009. This figure is good enough to account for 30% of its overall total operating profit, something not to be sneezed at.

In all, it sold 123,400 vehicles in the country last year, up 48% from 2009, adding up to an overall market share of 15.5%. Daihatsu’s parent, Toyota, has around 40% of Indonesia’s vehicle market share, and combined the brands have well over half of the share of the Indonesian market.

Now, Daihatsu is set – with the help of Toyota – to increase production in the country. It is set to spend around 20 billion yen to build a new factory, beginning in August, in the suburbs of Jakarta – when the plant is ready in 2013, it will offer an annual production capacity of 100,000 vehicles, adding to the company’s existing annual capacity of 280,000 cars there.

The new factory is expected to assemble a low-price compact of around a 1.0 litre engine displacement for the Indonesian market. The company says the vehicle will be the cheapest compact ever made by the Toyota group and will also be supplied to Toyota for sale under a different model name. Besides domestic sales, it plans to export the model to other Southeast Asean markets and elsewhere in a bid to expand its presence in Asia.

Toyota and Daihatsu are working on a low cost car to build in Indonesia for the Indonesian market as well as the ASEAN region. According to reports, the car will be smaller than the low cost Vios-like Toyota Etios that Toyota launched in India recently, which leads me to believe it’s likely to be a hatchback. The car will be priced the equivalent of 800,000 to 900,000 yen in Indonesia, which translates to about RM29,800 to RM33,600.

To support this new vehicle, Daihatsu will invest as much as 20 billion yen (RM746 million) in Indonesia (not including land acquisition) to build a new factory with a 100,000 car annual output, of which about 70,000 will be used by Toyota.

The factory will boost Daihatsu’s current manufacturing capacity from 330,000 units a year to 430,000 units a year. It will have an initial capacity of 50,000 units a year. It will be located in the Kawasan Industry Suryacipta in Karawang Timur, Jawa Barat. Expected to be ready in end 2012, the new factory will handle stamping, welding, painting and assembly.

Things are definitely changing for Indonesia. Daihatsu and Toyota used to build only cars like the Avanza and the Innova for the Indonesia market. There is a Daihatsu Sirion currently sold in Indonesia but it actually uses our Perodua Myvi’s styling and is built in Malaysia by Perodua and imported into Indonesia. Deals like this might just end with Daihatsu having additional capacity for monocoque low cost cars.

Everyone over here is curious as to what this new low cost car might be, especially what kind of car and bodystyle. Word is that it will be based on a new minicar Daihatsu will launch in Japan in summertime this year with a targeted claimed fuel economy of 30km per litre. The Daihatsu e:S Concept (shown above) comes to mind, but it could also just be a Indonesian-ised Perodua Viva.

Here’s some shots of the Daihatsu version of the new 2nd generation Toyota Passo. If you want to know more about what’s changed with the 2nd generation car, you can head on to the story about the Toyota Passo version. The platform is most likely similiar to the 1st generation but there are new Dual VVT-i engines. Look after the jump for the gallery of the Daihatsu-badged car. Perodua’s version will come soon I suppose!
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Daihatsu has launched yet another body variation of the Mira in Japan, this time called the Mira Cocoa, joining the Mira and the Mira Custom in the K-car range.

In Daihatsu’s own words, the use of the name Cocoa was chosen because the car intends to give the driver and passengers that comfortable and relaxed feeling of drinking a hot cup of cocoa on a cold day.

The Mira Cocoa measures 1,530mm in height, 1,930mm long and 1,345mm wide. Only one engine option is available in Japan – the 660cc KF-VE with DVVT variable valve timing, producing 58 PS at 7,200rpm and 65Nm of torque at 4,000rpm. There are two different transmissions available – a 4-speed auto or a CVT transmission, with the latter being more fuel efficient.

For the 2WD car, the CVT can provide up to 23.5 km per litre on the Japan 10-15 test cycle while the 4-speeder can only do 19.4km per litre. 4WD versions can do 20km and 18.6km per litre respectively for the CVT and 4-speed cars.

Daihatsu is shouting about the funky new rear view mirror that they’re using in the Mira Cocoa, claiming its the first of its kind installed in a vehicle in Japan. It integrates a back view monitor into the rear view mirror, which is also equipped with an auto anti-glare function. Now I wonder why there’s no mention of aerodynamics values…

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