Toyota SA is to up its export programme by doubling the Prospecton plant’s production capacity to 200 000 units a year within three years.
Toyota SA is to up its export programme by doubling the Prospecton plant’s production capacity to 200 000 units a year within three years, Toyota SA chairman Bert Wessels announced this week.
CARtoday.com reported in July that Toyota intended to increase production to 150 000 units a year within five years. But that plan was recently been revised and by the time it comes to fruition, “Toyota will make up half the units produced by all other South African vehicle manufacturers combined,” reported on Friday.
Toyota’s export destinations include Europe, Australia and Africa. The plans should contribute to South Africa’s GDP and benefit SA component suppliers, because the manufacturer’s export strategy will include large-scale localisation of vehicle components.
Although an export programme to Europe was not official yet, Wessels said Toyota SA would soon start exporting new Corollas to Europe: “Toyota has now literally run out of capacity in Europe”.
Toyota SA’s strategy was to achieve a 25 per cent share of the South African new vehicle market.
Wessels said that to achieve this market share, Toyota would have to capture 18 per cent of the local market with Corollas and pick-ups.
The remaining seven per cent would have to be generated through the supply of imported Lexus units. Toyota SA intended to bring the units into the country by virtue of the export credits it gained for the local-content of the vehicles it manufactured.