Karawang, Indonesia :  Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) announces that its vehicle production subsidiary in Indonesia, PT. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia (TMMIN), held a ceremony here today to mark the opening of its second plant in the city.

Plant 2 Karawang, adjacent to the existing Plant 1 Karawang, will produce the “Etios Valco”(1), a compact hatchback developed specifically for Indonesian consumers.

Guests at the ceremony included Minister of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia H.E. Mohamad S. Hidayat and Ambassador of Japan to the Republic of Indonesia Yoshinori Katori. TMC Senior Managing Officer Takahiro Iwase and TMMIN President Masahiro Nonami were also in attendance.

At the ceremony, Iwase said: “Toyota positions Indonesia as an important production base. Proactively increasing our capacity here is proof of Indonesia’s growing importance. We also plan to develop Indonesia as an auto export base. TMMIN’s Karawang plants have become indispensible to the future growth of global Toyota”.

Nonami, speaking of his aspirations for Toyota in Indonesia, said: “The opening of this new plant is the newest chapter in Toyota’s commitment to the development of Indonesia.” The plant, he said, “incorporates advanced production technology, designed to be both eco-friendly and worker friendly, including many ideas from our Indonesian employees.”

Initial production capacity at Plant 2 Karawang is approximately 70,000 units per year. Approximately 3.3 trillion rupiah has been invested and approximately 1,100 new jobs created. With plans to increase production capacity to 120,000 units at the beginning of next year, total annual production – in combination with production at Plant 1 Karawang(2) – is planned to exceed 250,000 units a year.

Since the founding of the PT. Toyota-Astra Motor sales company in 1971, Toyota has been providing vehicles that have pleased Indonesian consumers.

Last year, the automobile market in Indonesia passed the 1-million-unit mark for the first time, with Toyota sales in the country also exceeding 400,000 units for the first time. Moreover, Indonesia’s importance as a production and supply base is growing: a total of 60,000 units of the “Kijang Innova” minivan and the “Fortuner” SUV were exported from TMMIN to ASEAN and Middle Eastern countries last year.

Toyota, based on its founding principle of contributing to society through the manufacture of automobiles, will continue to develop products that satisfy Indonesian consumers while endeavoring to expand the Indonesian automotive industry.