Mystery Toyota model being developed by Australia for Thailand and Malaysia. Sub-Vios compact?

In these current time and age, there is no such thing as a made in x country car. Globalization does not only mean that today's cars are built with components sourced from all over the world, but also means that product development is now spread across to different teams in different countries to leverage on each of their own comparative advantage. At the recent Sydney Motor Show, the manager of Toyota Style Australia, Paul Beranger, reportedly revealed to the Australian press that TSA is currently working a regional product that will not be sold in Australia, but in other regional Asia Pacific markets, including Thailand and Malaysia. He further added that “We have some people coming down from Malaysia and Thailand soon to discuss a project for them.”

Melbourne based Toyota Style Australia is one of the 4 global design centers maintained by Toyota, the others are in California, USA (Calty Design Research Inc), ED2 (Toyota Europe Design and Development) in Nice, France, and of course its Tokyo Design Center in Japan. Previous work by TSA included the development for the Aurion (Asian market Camry), and two short-lived Australian market only TRD Hilux and TRD Aurion, and the Sportivo Coupe Concept Car in 2004. Surprising eh? That our Camry is partially developed by the Aussies.

Paul Beranger and his team at Toyota Style Australia. In background are the now discontinued, Australian market only TRD Hilux and TRD Aurion.

Back to the "regional product" by TSA. Not much detail is known other than the major markets in focus are Malaysia and Thailand, and that is a low cost car. Some are speculating that this could be a sub-Vios model, a variation based on Indian market Etios compact car, previously reported by the Japanese press as the EFC or Emerging Market Family Car.

Although lacking in having a strong domestic car manufacturing base (Toyota is the only major foreign OEM that builds cars in Australia), Australia boasts of an excellent education system that supplies to a wide talent pool, allowing the country to quickly adapt itself from being a regional manufacturing base (having lost much of its cost competitiveness to Thailand, which is supplying more and more cars to Australia) into a regional design hub. Australia not only does design work for Toyota, but also for Ford and General Motors.

The recently unveiled T6 Ford Ranger and its upcoming SUV sister car the next generation Ford Everest, the Indian market Ford Figo were all developed by Ford's Asia-Pacific and Africa Product Planning team and engineers at Ford Broadmeadows in Campbellfield. At General Motors, GM's Australian operations arm Holden, was tasked to develop the Zeta platform, which now underpins the Chevrolet Camaro.

The B0 segment is currently heating up with a lot of new entries coming to the market, headed by the highly acclaimed Hyundai i10 (the 1.25-litre version is this author's favourite in the segment), Suzuki Alto, Nissan March and the rumored March sedan.

Spyshots - 2011 Honda Civic 9th Generation model

The Middle East arm of British publication CAR have posted what it claims to be the world's first spyshots of the 9th generation Civic, caught out in the open in Dubai. Expected launch timing is circa late 2011, as a 2012 model. We have posted some initial information of the 2011 Civic sometime back, although we were expressed quite a bit of doubt with the information presented there.

From the series of pictures below, shot by the folks at CAR Middle East, it is obvious that Honda decided to go down the conservative route, evolutionary rather than revolutionary. Wise move considering the economic climate the car was developed under.








But there is also a general feeling a letdown, that next generation did not seem to build on the strong futuristic image laid down by the current 8th generation Civic and its smaller brother the City (Fit Aria). So fans of the Civic who are holding back your purchase, your decision is made much easier now, assuming you are the sort who places looks above everything else, which most Civic owners stereotypically are. Else you would have considered the bland but more rational Corolla (Altis) instead.

The front fascia carries Honda's new corporate grille first seen in the FCX Clarity, and currently adorns the City and Accord. The windscreen continues with the current Civic's signature design of a steeply raked windscreen and A-pillars supporting a really large glass area. As for the rear, well, you can see it for yourself. And that's not a compliment. It has reminiscences of the previous generation XV30 US market Toyota Camry, that spots a different tail lamp cluster from our ASEAN specs models.

CAR claims that sources revealed to them that a 1.5-litre engine lies under the hood of these two test units. But the presence of a green coloured switch at the lower left driver's side panel what looks to us like a Eco Assist button, leading us to speculate that this is actually the hybrid version. Remember that the CR-Z is powered by a 1.5-litre IMA hybrid powerplant. It is unlikely for Honda to offer a 1.5-litre engine for the Civic in overseas market as that segment is already currently covered by the City. Although Kah Motor in Singapore sells a 1.6-litre version of the Civic but it is unlikely that anything smaller than that will ever be offered in any non-hybrid gasoline guise. The presence of amber coloured front turn signal lenses suggests that this is a US specs model to comply with US Federal regulations. Japanese market and other overseas models usually feature clear turn signal lenses. Another point which makes us highly doubt that these cars are powered by a regular 1.5-litre engine. Currently, the US market Civic is powered by a 1.8-litre gasoline while a natural gas powered version is also available (non bi-fuel).

Even if it is true that the engine is a regular gasoline 1.5-litre unit, it will be restricted to the Japanese market. The Japanese market Corolla Axio is also offered in 1.5-litre form but the Corolla Axio (to comply with Japanese tax regulations) is also smaller than the Corolla Altis sold in most major overseas market including Asia, USA and Europe. Years earlier, certain sources indicated that HMC was considering to reduce the body size of the JDM Civic to be able to price more competitively against the Corolla Axio in its Japanese domestic market. Leading some speculation that some major rationalization between the Civic Euro, JDM Civic and USDM Civic is under consideration. Without knowledge of the dimensions of these Civics shot by CAR Middle East, we can't ascertain the rumour.

Update : A concept version of the next generation Civic was previewed in the 2011 North American Motor Show in Detroit.

It looks stunning in concept form, but it is left to be seen if the low slung profile will be translated to production. Those front headlamps look a wee bit too low to pass US Federal regulations. Asian markets will have no issue with that though. The current US Civic has a slightly different front bumper and headlamp to satisfy the Feds 5mph bumper and minimum headlamp height regulations.

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Nissan Teana - the new No.1 in China. Malaysian launch by Nov 2010

The D-segment sedan market have traditionally been a duopoly of both the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, especially in Asian markets. The Toyota Camry leads the sales charts in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, with the Honda Accord following behind closely. This has been the established (and accepted) order of hierarchy in the sales charts for the last decade or so. Ironically, it was in the Chinese market in mainland China that this traditional order have been reversed. For two consecutive months of September and August 2010, sales of the Nissan Teana overtook both the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry in China.

As of September 2010, Dongfeng Nissan, the local distributor of Nissan vehicles in China reported a cumulative sale of 108,504 units sold since its launch in 2009, putting it ahead of both the Camry and the Accord. Exact sales figures of the Camry and Accord for the last month were not available to the general public as the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers only publishes statistics of the top ten sellers for free. And both the Camry and the Accord have since dropped out of the top ten. So good is the Teana that Chinese buyers have since nicknamed the Teana as "King of Comfort."

During the launch of the Teana in China, Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn have stressed that the Teana have been designed with a lot of focus on Chinese consumers, calling it "The Teana is a Chinese product." Chinese consumers also tend to be less brand loyal, and tend to exercise a lot more pragmatic considerations on top of the brand reputation. There Chinese car market is not overly dominated by any single brand. GM and VW (including Audi) are the biggest sellers overall, but not by the same sort of margin enjoyed by Proton, Perodua and Toyota here in Malaysia, as clearly seen from the fragmented segment leading brands in China. Honda does well in the MPV and SUV segment, Audi leads in the luxury segment, while Buick, Hyundai and VW each lead in in different sub-segment of the mainstream passenger car market.

Nissan is represented in China by Dongfeng Nissan, a 50-50 joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and Nissan Motor Co. The Camry referred to here is the Asian Camry, and is different from the Camry sold in domestic Japanese and American markets. The Asian Camry is larger, has more luxurious trim and is also sold in Australia as the V6 only Aurion. The Accord sold in Asian markets however, is similar to that sold in America and Japan (known as the Inspire) but different from the one sold in Europe. Both the American and Asian Camry are due for replacement by 2012. In Malaysia, Edaran Tan Chong Motor will be re-launching the Teana again locally by November 2010, this time in CKD form so it will be priced more competitively against the established players. The CBU version of the Teana was quietly discontinued after a very short stint in 2008. This time, two engine options will be offered - a 4-cylinder 2.0-litre and a V6 2.5-litre, both petrol of course. Back in the 90s, the Korean designed Nissan Cefiro was giving both the Camry and Accord a good run for their money, but dropped out of the race by the late 90s.

Update : Nissan Teana in Malaysia, and Honda Accord Minor Change

2011 Toyota Yaris Full Model Change

The third generation Yaris (also known as Vitz in Japan) is expected to be launched in Japan and Western Europe by end of this year as a 2011 model. Other export markets including Asia-Ocenia region is expect to receive the car by Q4 2011. At the recent Sydney Motor Show, Toyota's Australian subsidiary have already revealed that the 2011 Yaris will be launched in Australia by September 2011. Below are a series of leaked brochures of the new Yaris, but do take note that these are not pictures of the standard model but the Modelista variant, an accessories package sub-brand for Toyota's Japanese market models. Similar to what Honda offers via its Modulo package in our local market.




A more updated Dual VVT-i engine mated to a CVT transmission is expected, first shown to consumers in the ASEAN region via the facelifted Corolla Altis. But of course, the one in the Yaris will come with a smaller capacity. If proven true, it is a welcomed replacement as the current 1NZ-FE VVT-i unit that powers current and previous generation of Yaris and Vios (Yaris sedan) is a rather coarse unit, lacking the refinement of its fellow segment competitors.





Introduction in ASEAN region is still a bit unclear as there have been a number of conflicting rumours floating around in the region, causing some to doubt if the model will even be sold in ASEAN trade bloc markets. Toyota Australia was mum about sourcing of the new 3G Yaris but hinted that Thailand's Chachoengsao plant, which makes the current generation Yaris alongside the Vios could be a possibility, citing lower cost for the Thai plant compared to its current Japanese source. However Toyota Motor Thailand have not revealed anything regarding production of the next generation Yaris. It should be noted that Toyota Motor Thailand have since ceased production of the previous generation Wish MPV, and the model was never replaced with the current second generation model, citing high tooling cost and low sales volume. Singapore is the only market in the ASEAN region that continues to sell the Wish, in its second generation model guise, fully imported from Japan.

There have been suggestions from the Thai automotive community that the Yaris will not be replaced and will be dropped from Toyota's model line-up entirely! The Yaris have always been a difficult model to sell for Toyota's ASEAN region offices. In Malaysia, the model was quietly discontinued after barely 3 years in the market. Designed with a European cost base, it made the car difficult to be built outside of Europe / Japan under a competitive cost. It was more pricey, less fuel efficient, and smaller compared to a similarly priced Honda Jazz. The first and the last bit was the Achilles' heel for the Yaris, in a market where consumers want the most metal for their money. And the Yaris 3G does not seem have addressed any of these issues, further lending credibility to the rumour. The size, performance and price of the Yaris have hit a sweet spot for Western European markets and changing that formula would not go down well with European consumers.

It's high price vs relatively smaller dimensions make the Yaris a slow seller in key Asian markets like ASEAN trade bloc and also the all important Chinese market, where the Honda Jazz continues its segment leading position. Even in Japan, on certain months the single model Jazz outsells all the Toyota Corolla variants. The Honda Jazz was never marketed as a typical compact car in ASEAN markets, mainly Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. But it was marketed as a practical right-size car with class leading utlity features as its trump card - the huge 384-litre boot space (with rear seats upright) that can be expanded to 1321-litres with intelligent ULTRA-seats folded.

There have been rumours that the Yaris will be discontinued and replaced with the Verso-S, a sister car to the Yaris. Although no further reliable information can be found to ascertain this rumour. The Verso-S is a more utility focused hatchback, more in keeping with the Honda Jazz and Hyundai's new ix20, all hatchbacks with MPV-like pretensions. In the ASEAN market, the current 2G Yaris is really punching above its weight by going head-head with the Jazz. Size-wise, a more natural competitor for the Yaris would be Nissan Micra / March, Suzuki Swift and Splash. In certain markets, the Yaris is sold with a 1.3-litre engine and even a 1.0-litre engine.

Verso-S
But this is just a rumour, certain sources however believed that the next generation Yaris will continue to be made in Thailand.

Now here's the shocker - it appears that a sub-Yaris hatchback is currently being considered for production for Thailand. Target competitors are the Hyundai i10, Suzuki Alto and Nissan March. Little details were shared but this is expected to be a eco-car variant that is eligible for tax breaks under the Thai government eco-car programme. Toyota have previously announced that a low cost compact car called the Etios will be made in India.

Whatever the future plans is for the Yaris in this region, we can be very sure a hybrid version of the Yaris is expected to be introduced, probably even before its mid-lifecycle upgrade timing, circa 2012 or 2013, with a fuel economy expected to be even better than that of the Prius.


The second (current) generation Yaris, and the first Yaris model to be sold in ASEAN region markets. In hatch (Vitz in Japan) and sedan form (also known as Vios in ASEAN markets and Belta in Japan).

The first generation Yaris (also known as Echo in some markets). Oddly, we didn't get the same sedan sold in Europe, USA and Australia, but got an entirely different looking car for our previous generation Vios. Providing ammunition for critics to call the previous generation Vios a dumbed down developing market car that could not pass safety regulations required in more developed markets. Personally I think it is just a very obvious case that the early generation Echo sedan would look too horrible to sell in a market that takes compact sedans very seriously. American Toyota dealers had a lot of problem shifting early model Yaris sedan out of their showrooms. Plus, the previous generation Vios, although built off the same Yaris platform, is more of a replacement for the Soluna entry level sedan rather than a bona-fide sedan variant of the Yaris.

The Tony Fernandes and Lotus v Proton lawsuit saga

Whenever someone mentions the name Lotus, even in the automotive context, one ought to ask further "Which Lotus? The racing team or the sports car maker or the consulting firm?" The racing team is known as Team Lotus while the sports car maker is Lotus Cars and the engineering consultancy is Lotus Engineering. The latter two falls under the Group Lotus umbrella owned by Proton Holdings while Team Lotus was owned by a private businessman and brother of the late 1976 F1 world champion James Hunt. David Hunt allegedly sold the rights of Team Lotus to Malaysian aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes although the sale is currently challenged by Proton as invalid. It should be pointed out that both Lotus cars and the racing team are an entirely separate entities ran by two unrelated management teams, complete with their own individual corporate logos.

Lotus Cars
Lotus Racing

It's the same analogy when we talk about Volvo or Saab. Volvo Cars, the Swedish car maker currently owned by Chinese maker Geely or Volvo Group, the second largest truck maker in the world. Saab Automobile AB, the Swedish car maker owned by Spyker or Saab AB, maker of the famed Saab Gripen fighter jets, partially owned by British Aerospace. Just because they share a common name, even a common history doesn't mean that they are always on the same page. In fact, these 4 groups are entirely different corporate entities, completely independent of each other.

So, Proton's press release opening statement of "There is and always has been only one Lotus, the Lotus started by Colin Chapman" is not exactly correct. A reader shared some useful opinions and some pretty good links on the whole Lotus vs Proton saga, here and here. Most of the historical background to this contention can be found in the pages linked above.

But I would like to add a few notes to this. Firstly, we need to remember that it was never Proton's intention to go into Formula One. Remember that it was PM Najib who made the announcement, but of course being a state-owned company, Proton had to go along and abide to whatever fancy wishes the current PM or even ex-PM Mahatir has to say. Doesn't matter whether it makes any business sense or not. Of course it doesn't make any business sense! Toyota, Honda, Subaru, BMW have all pulled the plug on their world stage racing activities. The phrase race on Sunday sell on Monday no longer applies to the current market conditions.

Secondly, Proton does not own the Lotus Racing team, even though it owns the Lotus Cars brand. As far as the F1 team is concerned, Proton is only a sponsor and a rights holder to the Lotus Cars brand. Proton gave the management of Lotus Racing a one-year license to use the Lotus brand but there were very strict agreements pertaining other related use of the brand. At that point of time, Team Lotus was still owned by David Hunt. Tony Fernandes claims that David Hunt has since sold Team Lotus to Lotus Racing. In their counter-argument, Lotus Racing retorted that Proton is terminating the license on very trivial ground, on things like t-shirt merchandises.

Now, in the midst of all this, we need to read things in the context that Proton is a mere sponsor to the F1 team, and that they hold the rights to Lotus Cars via ownership of Group Lotus, and the "Ride and Handling by Lotus" sub-brand forms a very critical part of many Proton model's unique selling points (USP). At the same time, Someone else, completely independent from Proton, is racing under the Lotus brand. You have companies like AirAsia, Tune Group, Maxis and even Naza as its sponsors. Like any platinum sponsor, these tier-1 partners are allowed to use the Lotus F1 team brand as part of their marketing activities, and remember that Proton have absolutely no control over this. The general public on the other hand tend to think that all Lotus(es) are the same (in the same way all Volvos are the same) and that Proton owns them (when in fact they don't). Proton should not have a lot of concerns if Maxis wants to use the Lotus brand in the same way ING uses Renault F1 or Vodafone uses Mclaren F1. But what about Naza? Naza Group is not only a sponsor but also co-owner to the Lotus Racing team, Naza Group CEO SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin jointly owns Lotus Racing together with AirAsia's Tony Fernades and Tune Group's Datuk Kamarudin Meranun. Naza Group have major automotive industry interest, being the largest parallel importer in Malaysia as well as a local partner for Peugeot and Kia. Now think about a Malaysian GP season promo activity, where Naza World decides to do a fire sale for a range of parallel imported Lotus models. Or if it decides to do a Naza-Team Lotus edition of a Kia Forte, complete with British racing green and Lotus Super Seven inspired yellow nose and stripes. And Proton cannot do a single thing about it. A couple of years back Naza sold a range of "Naza Edition" parallel imported Toyota Wish by slapping on some accessories, some of them involving tampering with the OEM's electrical circuitry. The official distributor UMW Toyota did some investigation but could not do anything to stop Naza because of our country's lax regulations regarding parallel imported vehicles. A similar thing happened when Naza was a dealer for Mazda vehicles. At that time the distributorship of Mazda vehicles was under Cycle & Carriage Bintang and there was little control over the dealer networks and development of the brand. CCB gave up the distributorship of Mazda in 2008 and the rights was transfered to Bermaz. Under Bermaz, Naza is no longer a dealer for Mazda vehicles.

Photo by Da Wg.
Proton's Satria Neo R3 Lotus Racing. Limited to 25 units. For those connoisseur collector and those in the know, there is no need to sell this to them. More than half were snapped up as soon as it was announced. Until Proton owns the full rights to Team Lotus, there is nothing to stop another company from creating something similar under the Team Lotus name by virtue of their sponsorship agreement with Lotus Racing.

The way is open for anyone who shows the money, irrespective of whether are they competitors of Proton or not to leverage on the Lotus brand, that Proton have spent so much money trying to keep it the sinking H.M.S Group Lotus afloat. Even Perodua can decide to enter the game if it really wants to. But of course, in reality I believe the management of Perodua are much wiser than that. Certain distributors however, tend to run the business like its some used car dealership and may not care that much. Thus, Proton needs to fight the case at the British courts to challenge the validity of David Hunt's rights to Team Lotus and for Proton to regain full control of the brand. Whether does this have a strong legal basis or not is another matter, as far as Proton is concerned, it is a matter of survival. It is mockery if they fail to have full control over the Lotus brand, in all its automotive variations and if they failed in the case then they might as well just sell Lotus to highest bidder. There are no short of willing buyers and at least two Chinese brands are rumoured to be interested in purchasing Lotus, at "very favourable" price.

The whole Tony Fernandes and Lotus Racing v. Proton saga is another repeat of the way fancy programmes initiated by the government always ends up - a lot of initial fanfare, massive wastage of taxpayer's money with very little accountability coupled with highly subjective unquantifiable returns (Mahatir's phrase of "putting Malaysia on the world's map") but because they these were never debated in the parliament, not subjected to critical analysis and thus little thought was given on the fundamentals, it usually ends up more like a joke. Well it did put Malaysia on the map after all, just like how Mahatir and his portege Najib wants it.

For the management of Proton, this is a major distraction from the more important task of long term business planning. On a related subject on Lotus road cars, there were many doubts about the new direction Lotus is taking, to make more upscale sports cars challenging rival models from Ferrari and Porsche. Purists see it as a deviation from the founding philosophies of the late Chapman of "for speed - add lightness." But the brutal truth is that the market volume for cars that Lotus are famed for is very tiny in today's world. Only a handful of cars sell in that segment. Even Toyota wisely discontinued its MR-S / MR-2. When people of today buy a sports car, at the very basic level, their main motivation is one that is ego and status driven. The number of people who buys sports cars purely based on the vehicle's handling credentials is too small to sustain a full fledge new model development programme. In business, you go to where your customers are most concentrated at, not stubbornly sitting at where you are insisting that your products are the best in X or Y or Z area when nobody cares about X or Y or Z. And the customers are with Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Audi. For these minority group of purist drivers - there are still the Caterhams, the Westfields, and other eccentric kit cars to fill the void left by Lotus of old. Granted, the brand value of Lotus barely compares to that of Porsche or even Ferrari to command the money. And Lotus needs to dramatically overhaul their entire distribution and sales channel around the world, especially outside the UK, in critical markets of USA, Japan, Germany, and China.

If Lotus have to abandon Chapman's mantra to survive, then so be it. BMW is quietly abandoning its RWD only policy, first when it introduced the 4WD X5 SUV when the company was losing a lot of potential sales from the SUV boom of the 90s, and now the future series of FWD "mega city" models, in the light of increasingly tight environmental regulations. Subaru too is forced to reconsider its boxer engine with AWD only philosophy. Even Ferrari have started talks about going down the hybrid path! Even Porsche made a SUV! Not only that, a diesel SUV, and a 4-door sedan! Having a strong legacy can be a double edged sword and one of the reason brands like Audi and previously, Lexus can be some of the fastest growing luxury brands is because they have very little historical baggage to carry or to live up to. Historic British brands have a tendency to look at things with rosy-tinted glasses and it was the main reason Jaguar lost more than 2 decades of growth. Lotus is a niche brand is easy to get too caught up with pleasing their core clients, but as BMW have shown with its Chris Bangle "flaming surface designs" - very often to move forward you need to alienate / upset some of your core customers. Jaguar tried to please the same group of retirees too much and lost almost 2 decades of growth to the Germans. So I say bring on the big and fast Lotus! Just remember to hire some Steve Jobs rivaling marketing guru for the transformation.

The Porsche Panamera chasing Eterne hybrid sedan


The Porsche 911 chasing grand tourer Esprit