Toyota and Daihatsu to establish ‘Emerging-market Compact Car Company’ on January 1

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“Emerging-market Compact Car Company”. As weird as it may sound, Toyota has announced that’ll be the name of its new internal company, literally, it intends to establish with its small car brand Daihatsu on January 1, 2017.

Toyota says, the main objective of this company besides the obvious is, “to introduce competitive ever-better cars based on Daihatsu’s approach to manufacturing affordable, high-quality products.” Further explaining the plan,

Structure

• The new internal company is to consist of three divisions: the Emerging-market Compact Car Product & Business Planning Division, the Emerging-market Compact Car Product Planning Division and the Emerging-market Compact Car Quality Planning Division. Furthermore, Toyota Motor Asia Pacific Engineering and Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TMAP-EM) is to be renamed Toyota Daihatsu Engineering and Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (TDEM) and become an entity under the new internal company.
• The Emerging-market Compact Car Product & Business Planning Division, which is to span both Toyota and Daihatsu, is to conduct overall planning for products and business operations, including making proposals for the Toyota-brand vehicle product lineup for emerging markets and for overall strategy.
• Although Daihatsu will basically have responsibility for product development for emerging-market compact cars, the new internal company’s Emerging-market Compact Car Product Planning Division and Emerging-market Compact Car Quality Planning Division will be responsible for final product development and quality for Toyota-brand vehicles.
• With the establishment of the new company, TMAP-EM, which has hitherto specialized in providing Toyota development, logistics and production preparation support for locally produced vehicle models, is to also be responsible for supporting the production of Daihatsu-centered compact vehicles for emerging markets.

Daihatsu President Masanori Mitsui is to be appointed chairman, and Toyota Managing Officer Shinya Kotera is to be appointed president of the new internal company.