Toyota's new pickup to breathe new life into market
Toyota has finally pulled the wraps off its much-anticipated all-new one-tonne pickup truck, which is hoped to help dramatically re-energise the stalled automobile market.
The Hilux’s launch, which was also its global premier, was held at Bitec Bang Na yesterday.
The new model, which sports the Revo badge, is priced from Bt569,000-Bt1.139 million. It is available with a choice of diesel and gasoline engines and three body styles – standard cab, smart cab and double cab.
The various configurations add up to 33 sub models.
Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand, said Thailand accounts for 70 per cent of Toyota’s global pickup production in six countries.
Toyota plans to sell 14,000 new Hiluxes per month, up from the 11,000-unit average during the first quarter of the year.
The pickup truck market has been suffering from low prices of agricultural products and high household debt. Pure pickup sales have dropped by 12.5 per cent to 84,830 units.
The total vehicle market could remain at the 900,000-unit level this year, he said without ruling out the chance of the market hitting 1 million units if things went well.
Toyota plans to produce 500,000 units of the eighth-generation Hilux in Thailand this year for both the domestic and export markets, which covers more than 100 countries worldwide.
"But production can also be increased to 600,000 units if there is stronger demand," he said.
The Hilux is produced under Toyota’s IMV (Innovative Multipurpose Vehicle) project with more than 2.4 million units of the seventh-generation model to be shipped out and over 1.65 million units to be sold in Thailand.
