Toyota, Mitsubishi boost Vios, Mirage production in PH

FROM left: Froilan Dytianquin, FVP Marketing; Hirofumi Shibata, EVP, treasurer and CFO; Yasuhiro Maruyama, EVP Manufacturing; Junya Masuda, EVP Marketing and Yoshiaki Kato, president and CEO photos by Eugene Araneta

JAPANESE firms Toyota Motor Philippines and Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) have started to roll out their respective investment plans to prepare their facilities for the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program.

Toyota said it was making an initial investment of P3.22 billion starting this year. It was able to secure the Board of Investments’ approval to enroll its Vios model in the government’s program of incentives to boost car manufacturing in the country.

This was on top of the more than P61 billion worth of cumulative investments that the firm, together with its supplier and dealer network, has invested since it started operations in the country.

Toyota aimed to start production of its enrolled model by 2018 and manufacture around 230,000 units within six years.

Mitsubishi, for its part, was investing P4.3 billion to set up a new production line for the Mirage model. The facility was expected to become operational by early next year.

The investment included a P2-billion stamping facility, which would break ground today.

“Under the CARS program, our projected production volume is 200,000 units within a period of six years. In order to meet this target volume, MMPC plans to increase its plant’s capacity by adding another work shift. Along with this, more jobs are likely to be generated nationwide,” said MMPC president and CEO Yoshiaki Kato. –Amy R. Remo