Toyota Motor will start to make its flagship Prius hybrid sedan in Thailand, marking the first mass production of the model outside Japan.
Toyota, which has been making the gas-electric hybrid vehicle at its main plant in central Japan, will start rolling out the Prius at an existing plant in Thailand from late November. The yen’s rise to a 15-year high against the dollar is threatening the competitiveness of Japanese exports and prompting manufacturers to consider shifting more output outside Japan.
The Thai plant, located about 110 kilometres southeast of Bangkok, has the capacity to make 200,000 units a year of such sedans as the Camry, Camry Hybrid and Corolla models and does not have plans to raise capacity
Toyota will make an unspecified number of Prius cars at the plant for supply only within the growing Thai market, at least initially. Toyota is also considering halting exports from Japan of the Corolla sedan from around 2013 due to the strong yen.
So we could expect the Prius to get cheaper if it is imported to India from Thailand or if the company just ships CKD kits chances are very rare though.
