According to a report by Nikkei Asia, Toyota is set to import Noah and Voxy minivans made in Taiwan for sale in its home market from October. The move is said to help ease the Japanese automaker’s domestic production constraints and tackle persistent delivery delays.
Both the Noah and Voxy are current produced in Japan and generate huge demand, with annual sales in the region of 70,000 to 80,000 units. However, capacity limitations have caused buyers to face long delivery periods, at times forcing the company to temporarily halt order taking.
The report says Toyota is expected to establish a dedicated assembly line in Taiwan specifically to produce vehicles for the Japanese market, the majority being cheaper variants. It adds that this will happen at a northern plant in Taiwan, with 100,000 vehicles being produced annually from the facility which also makes the Corolla and Yaris Cross through a local joint venture. This will supplement domestic production in Japan that will continue in parallel.
Toyota has maintained its goal of having an annual domestic output of three million vehicles but sustaining this is getting costly with labour shortages, rising material and labour costs as well as tighter production capacity. Kenta Kon, who assumed the roles of president and CEO of Toyota in April this year, reportedly said supply shortages leading to long delivery delays could drive customers towards rival brands.
The report also pointed out that data from the Japan Automobile Importers Association showed imports rising 19% year-on-year to 111,513 vehicles last year — the highest level in three decades – indicating that reverse-import vehicles are becoming more common among Japanese automakers.
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We also need this in the Malaysia market.
Currently, only recon Voxy are available in Malaysia.
Interesting… LHD country
Produce for RHD country
I agree, the recond Voxy is selling quite well in Malaysia
It’s so strange how local importers are not allowed to import brand new Japanese cars from zjapan but can import brand new Japanese cars from Australia.
proton import emas6 and emas8 made in china ok je
The Nissan Serena in Japan starts at a base price of ¥2,785,200, approximately RM69k+.
Export to malaysia also la. Oh wait you all still want sell us rubbish innova at crazy prices right
Who then will remanufacture the NoahVoxy as RHD? Thailand, right? Why on earth CAN’T our UMW allow this vehicle’s assembly to be done in the Shah Alam plant in the first place – instead of our grey import practice involving NoahVoxy and Honda StepWGN as a less expensive alternative to VellPhard?
Ya lor. Why umw never approached Toyota and get special duty tax waiver for export to Japan. Who knows noah and voxy can sell in sea too!!!
Why we can’t sell there if we are auto making nation
Not sure if Indonesian spec Voxy will be imported from Taiwan also