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Toyota has launched its worldwide bestseller Camry in the Chinese market as part of efforts to unseat Hyundai Motor there. The Japanese carmaker also produces its hybrid model Prius in factories in China, taking advantage of the country¡¯s energy shortage. Toyota rose from 10th place last year to seventh between January and May this year in terms of sales, not far behind Hyundai, whose standing fell from fourth to fifth. The Korean carmaker seems at a loss for a response amid a vacuum at the top caused by the company chairman¡¯s arrest for corruption.
A key Toyota executive who was in charge of improving product quality over the last 30 years has become the president of the Chinese Toyota factory. Located in Guangzhou, it started producing the Camry sedan from May 23, an advance base for the firm in the world¡¯s most populous country. Its catch phrase is ¡°Quality first.¡± "Toyota has equipped this factory with its headquarters¡¯ cutting-edge facilities and technology to ensure that the Camrys produced here have the same quality as their Japanese counterparts,¡± its president Toru Kuzuhara said on June 13.
Toyota sent all of its Chinese staff to Japan for one-on-one training in the company's production methods, including just-in-time delivery and a concept known as ¡°kaizen¡± or improvement. "Our Guangzhou plant operates under the same procedures as our Japanese plants to maintain the same product quality,¡± Kuzuhara says. ¡°For example, when a worker notices any product defect on the assembly line, the line comes to a complete stop immediately." Guangzhou-produced Camrys are seeing demand in big cities such as Shanghai soar, and Toyota dealers there get more than 500 orders a day. Toyota plans to catch up with Hyundai by multiplying dealerships there to 1,000.
Meanwhile, Toyota makes the hybrid Prius at its plant in Changchun in northern China and recently started to sell it. Experts say the Prius will play an important role for Toyota in conquering the Chinese car market in the long term. The Chinese government is set to support hybrid cars to tackle its serious energy shortages.
"From a long-term perspective, our biggest competitor in the Chinese market will be Toyota,¡± admits Noh Jae-man, the head of Beijing Hyundai Motor, Hyundai¡¯s Chinese joint venture. To respond to the release of the Camry, Hyundai cut the price of its NF Sonata, EF Sonata and Verna by 7 percent this month, an unprecedented move. The Korean carmaker also plans to double production capacity of its Beijing plant to 600,000 a year by 2007. It will establish a research center there to develop Chinese-style models.
But as the firm¡¯s chairman Chung Mong-koo remains in jail, the plans are making little progress. Local dealers are agitated. "Sales are getting sluggish because of chairman Chung's arrest, and many Hyundai dealers here are considering whether to move to Honda or Volkswagen, which is more profitable these days,¡± says Zhao Xin Hai, who runs a Hyundai dealership in southern Beijing.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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