Toyota Vietnam revs up local manufacturing strategy

Toyota Vietnam’s domestic production strategy has made a new step forward as the Japanese carmaker started delivery of a made-in-Vietnam duo to dealerships on Wednesday.

The MPV (multi-purpose vehicle) pair, Veloz Cross and Avanza Premio, are made at the firm’s plant in Vinh Phuc province near Hanoi. With the product launch, the company’s Vietnam-made product lineup has six names, comprising the duo, Corolla Altis, Vios, Innova, and Fortuner.

Toyota Vietnam CEO Hiroyuki Ueda described the latest move as an important milestone for the carmaker in the market, continuing its commitment to promoting domestic car manufacturing.

Local manufacturing helps the producer mitigate the effects of global supply chain issues, boost domestic production, complete products faster to shorten the delivery time to increase sales, as well as increase contributions to the state budget.

In addition, the carmaker plans to extend the warranty period for the new products to five years from the current three years for Toyota cars in the Vietnamese market.

Veloz Cross and Avanza Premio made a debut in the Vietnamese market in March 2022 as completely built units imported from Indonesia. The duo has recorded monthly sales of over 1,000 units, reaching over 16,000 in total by the end of November, according to Toyota Vietnam. Veloz Cross has continually been among the best-selling cars and topped the seven-seater segment with a market share of 40.3%, the firm said.

According to Toyota Vietnam, it currently has 58 auto part suppliers, including 12 Vietnamese enterprises. Its manufacturing facility in Vinh Phuc uses 740 domestically-made items.

The carmaker and Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade’s industry department launched this September a consultancy program for auto support industry enterprises. The program is within the framework of a memorandum of understanding on a Toyota Vietnam project assisting Vietnamese firms in the industry.

The project was launched in 2020, aiming at building up the capacity of domestic companies and connecting them with auto assemblers and manufacturers.

At present, Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor is seeking to rev up manufacturing in Vietnam as Hyundai Thanh Cong, a joint venture between it and Vietnamese firm Thanh Cong Group, launched the partnership’s second plant in Vietnam in mid-November.

Hyundai Motor has mostly remained No. 2 in Vietnam after Toyota in terms of market share but is seeking to change that with the new plant, located in Ninh Binh province near Hanoi.

The Korean auto giant plans to produce its top-selling electric car Ioniq 5 at the new facility in 2023 but has not disclosed this production timetable.