Toyota reportedly is considering building a new plant in an emerging market to make low-cost, small cars for such markets.
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An anonymous company spokeswoman told the Associated Press (AP) that the automaker, which recently announced plans to open a small car plant in India, is in the early stages of planning for a second factory in an emerging country but has not decided details such as the location, production capacity and timeline .
AP added that Tokyo’s Shimbun regional newspaper reported on Wednesday that Toyota is eyeing a factory in Brazil for a launch in 2011 to meet demand from the fast-growing car markets in South America.
Toyota already has a factory in Brazil which makes models such as the popular Corolla sedan, offered with a flex-fuel engine.
The paper said Toyota plans to invest tens of billions of yen in the plant, which would have a production capacity of about 150,000-200,000 units a year. The small sedan and hatchback models would be priced at around JPY1m (US$9,540; EUR6,170), the paper added, according to AP.
