TOYOTA ANNOUNCES INITIAL PLANS FOR TAIWAN START-UP

Toyota City―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION announced in Taipei today its initial plans for the start-up of local production in Taiwan.

Speaking at a press conference following the opening of the 1988 Taipei International Auto Show, Tatsuro Toyoda, senior managing director of Toyota said the company hoped to start operations there in June with an initial target figure of 40,000 vehicles per year at full production. The company will begin with production of the ZACE, a one-ton class commercial vehicle, and add the Corona in the spring of 1989. Sales of the ZACE are slated to begin in October.

Toyoda outlined the fundamental aims of the company's Taiwan project as follows

• To provide users in Taiwan with high quality vehicles featuring advanced technologies
• To set up attractive, customer-oriented sales outlets and a meticulous after-sales service system based on Toyota's "customer first" philosophy
• To build a new production system based on Toyota's production methods with roots firmly grounded in Taiwan
• And to gain the support of the Taiwanese people and, moreover, contribute to Taiwan's economic development

"We decided to start with the introduction of the ZACE because we felt that a practical vehicle is what the customer here needs most," said Toyoda. The ZACE, and later the Corona, will be produced by Kuozui Motors, Ltd. which has been assembling Toyota's Dyna in Taiwan since 1986. Stamped parts the operation will be supplied by Fung Yong Co., Ltd., a Toyota subsidiary established in June 1986.

Toyoda said its distributor in Taiwan will be Ho Tai Motor Co., Ltd. and that retail sales will be carried out through a network of eight new dealers. "These eight dealers have already concluded contracts with Ho Tai, so we have essentially set up a complete system from production to sales," he added.

Toyoda concluded by saying, "I assure you we will be putting everything we have into the project to see that sales get underway in October and that Kuozui, Fung Yong, Ho Tai and the dealers become our long-standing partners in Taiwan."