Toyota and Daihatsu set up new internal company

Toyota has collaborated with its fully-owned subsidiary Daihatsu to form a new internal company called Emerging-market Compact Car Company. To be formally established on January 1, 2017, the company’s objective is to develop and launch competitive compact vehicles – based on Daihatsu’s approach to manufacturing affordable, high-quality products – for emerging markets.

The newly formed company will comprise three divisions – the Emerging-market Compact Car Product & Business Planning Division, Emerging-market Compact Car Product Planning Division, and the Emerging-market Compact Car Quality Planning Division. Out of these, the first division will be responsible for overall planning of products and business operations, including making proposals for Toyota’s vehicle product line-up for emerging markets. The latter two divisions, meanwhile, will be responsible for final product development and quality of Toyota brand vehicles. Daihatsu will conduct the initial product development of the compact cars.

So far, no details have been revealed regarding exactly which emerging markets the new company intends to target. However, previous media reports have suggested that India is one of intended target markets.