Toyota to invest USD45.6 million in Philippines to build all-new Innova MPV

Increasing product localisation in Philippines will help maintain price competitiveness

Toyota Motor Philippines is planning to invest as much as PHP2 billion (USD45.6 million) in the country as it prepares to assemble an all-new Innova multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) in the domestic vehicle market, reports local publication Business Mirror. Speaking at an event to celebrate 26 years of operations in the Philippines, Michinobu Sugata, the president at the local operations said, "Very soon we are going to have a model change of the Innova, so we need additional investments". The investment is expected to be routed towards increasing local content such as pressed components and parts for the all-new Innova to 40%, from the current 30%. The expected launch date of the model is yet to be revealed, although Sugata stated that the company is currently in the "preparation stage".