South African Built Toyota Corollas to Europe?

TOKYO April 10, 2003; Dow Jones reported that Toyota Motor Corp. said it has yet to map out plans for global output of its "Corolla" subcompact sedan in 2006.

The newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Friday that the No. 1 Japanese automaker will begin exporting 30,000 units annually of the model from South Africa to Europe by 2006, but a Toyota spokesman said the company has no such plans.

"We don't make production plans as far as three years into the future. Two years is the maximum we need to map out production plans," he said, adding that the volume of exports reported in the article was pure speculation.

The report reflects the growing importance of Africa as a manufacturing base for international carmakers amid increasingly tough cost competition. But the spokesman said only, "Exporting the model from South Africa to Europe is just as possible as any other plan."