Toyota Inaugurates Australian R&D Base

Tokyo ― TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that Toyota Technical Center Asia Pacific Australia Pty. Ltd. (TTCAP-AU)―one of two Toyota R&D bases for better responding to the diversifying and ever-more-sophisticated needs of growing markets in Asia and Oceania―held a ceremony to mark its start of operations.

TMC currently operates similar facilities in Japan, Europe and North America that conduct such things as body and major component design and evaluation, but TTCAP-AU, in Melbourne Australia, is the first such facility in the Asia/Oceania region. TTCAP-AU will function in a similar way to the research and development bases in North America and Europe, taking platforms and base models developed in Japan and modifying the specifications and chassis to reflect the tastes of Australasian markets.

Toyota Technical Center Asia Pacific Thailand Co. Ltd. (TTCAP-TH), currently under construction in Thailand, is scheduled to begin operations sometime in this May.