Toyota plans to sell 1,500 new Voltz hatchbacks a month in Japan, importing the cars from the US plant it runs jointly in Fresno, California with General Motors, Bloomberg News said.
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The car, built at New United Motor Manufacturing, or NUMMI is a right-hand drive version of General Motors’ Pontiac Vibe, and went on sale yesterday, Bloomberg said.
Toyota plans to release about 16 new models in Japan this business year to try to win back customers after losing market share to Honda, Bloomberg said, adding that Toyota’s Japan market share fell 0.8% in the April-June quarter to 42.8% from a year earlier, reducing domestic profit.
“Our relationship with GM will be even better and we hope to have a long relationship with GM,” Toyota president Fujio Cho said at a Tokyo press meeting, according to Bloomberg. “Voltz is the second (joint model with GM) and we hope to have third and fourth eventually.”
The first joint GM-Toyota car sold in Japan was, however, not a success. The Toyota-badged right-hand drive Chevrolet Cavalier sold only about 30,000 units in four years after launch in 1996, about a quarter of target.
Bloomberg said the five-door Voltz hatchback has a 1.8-litre engine, and is sold through Toyota’s Netz dealer network in Japan for between 1.79 million yen ($US15,050) and 2.05 million yen.
