1st Toyota Coaster Roles Off China Assembly Line

Tokyo―TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announced today that Sichuan Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. (SCTM) held a ceremony today at its plant in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China, to celebrate the start of Chinese production of its Coaster mid-size bus, the first China-made vehicle to bear a Toyota badge: About 400 people, including guests from the central government of China and the local governments of Sichuan and Chengdu, attended the gathering. TMC President Fujio Cho and SCTM Chairman Jiang Zhizhong, who also serves as director of the Sichuan Station Wagon Factory (SSWF), were also present.

For the Chinese automobile market, which is expected to continue steady growth, the bus market in particular is considered promising because of China's intensifying demand for public transportation. To make effective use of China's expansive network of domestic highways, which currently ranks second worldwide in terms of total distance, there is a growing call for quality buses capable of running reliably at high speeds.

Since its debut in Japan in 1963, the Coaster has been highly acclaimed for its high-speed running performance, durability, riding comfort, luxurious looks and other features. Currently being exported to more than 80 countries throughout the world, the Coaster is expected to reach cumulative production of roughly 286,000 units by the end of 2000. With bus demand on the rise in China in recent years, China now accounts for 20% of the total exports of the Coaster. Between 1995 and 1999, cumulative Coaster exports totaled 28,693 units, of which 5,488 units were shipped to China.

SCTM was established in November 1998 by TMC and SSWF as a joint venture. Based on Toyota's basic philosophy to "build where sold," the goal of SCTM is to provide more people in China, the largest overseas market for the Coaster, with reasonably priced high-quality buses suited to the nation's traffic environment. SCTM thus became Toyota's first overseas company for producing buses.

In December 1999, SCTM began preparations for full-scale Coaster production by using a section of its plant building to assemble the Coaster on a complete knockdown (CKD) basis. Over a six-month period it assembled 100 units. The first units of the Coaster now coming off the line, based on the highly popular current model, have undergone a redesign of their chassis and appearance with features adapted to Chinese traffic conditions and passenger tastes.

For the SCTM-made Coaster, 60% of all materials and parts are procured within China. All production processes―press-work, welding, painting and assembly―are conducted at SCTM. The plant has set annual production goals for the Coaster at 3,000 units in 2001 and 10,000 units in 2005, far higher than the 7,866 units produced in Japan in 1999.

SCTM's plant site covers an area of approximately 180,000 square meters, of which 50,000 square meters is for the plant building. As an environmentally concerned plant, it is fully equipped with facilities for treating polluted water, powder dust, soot and the like. Taking the plant's surrounding environment into consideration, trees and shrubs have been planted along the perimeter for sound-proofing purposes, and much of the site area has been covered with grass as well. In addition, due consideration has been paid to safety at the plant, with, for example, proprietary hazard-prevention devices having been built into the production equipment, more than 90% of which was procured within China.

After the ceremony, TMC President Cho gave a press conference and expressed his intention of supporting through SCTM the Chinese government's Great Western Development Initiative, a plan to extensively develop China's western regions. He told reporters, "Roughly half of our parts suppliers are located in Sichuan Province and neighboring areas. To help increase the quality of parts, some Toyota engineers actually went to visit them and shared their knowledge to achieve some innovative results. Since the Chinese government announced its plans to develop the nation's western areas, a large number of companies have been turning their attention to inland regions. I'm very happy and proud that we can contribute to the economic growth of these areas."

Beginning in April 2001, Coaster units produced by SCTM will be sold by a total of 23 SCTM-approved outlets throughout the nation.