Toyota car Exporters in Japan

The Japanese based automaker Toyota has recently announced the launch of the Corolla Hybrid on its local auto market, where the model is apparently eligible for a 100 percent tax waiver.

TOKYO  -- According to the car manufacturer, the Toyota Corolla Hybrid is available to its future customers in Japan in two body styles, the Corolla Axio (Sedan) and the Corolla Fielder (Estate), and prices for the first one have been set at 1,925 million YEN while for the second one at 2.09 million YEN. The two brand new “green” versions of the Toyota Corolla are said to be eligible for a 100 percent tax waiver on their local auto market.

Toyota says that the new Corolla Hybrid is powered, on both body styles, by the same 1.5 liter petrol engine, which is good for 74 PS, mated to a THS-II (Toyota Hybrid System) hybrid module, where the electric motor is providing an extra 61 PS. The battery is nickel-metal and it will help the Corolla Hybrid return 33 km/L. As for the goodies list, this will include the 4.2-inch screen on the instrument console, automatic headlights, collision warning system and much more. The hybrid version will not differentiate from the regular variant except for the new Light Blue Metallic exterior color.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been urging Japan’s companies to spend their growing piles of money to bolster the country’s economy. Toyota Motor Corp., with cash swelling to about $37 billion, is beginning to comply.

The car-maker said on Aug. 2 that net income almost doubled to 562.2 billion yen ($5.7 billion) last quarter -- more than General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG combined -- as U.S. sales rose and the weaker yen boosted overseas profit. Cash and marketable securities rose 11 percent and totaled the most of any non-bank in Japan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Toyota is starting to spread the wealth. The company is raising capital spending and research expenditures 10 percent this fiscal year, paying workers the highest bonuses since 2008, and planning higher dividends as income surges. The moves show how Abe’s efforts to revive Japan’s economy are gaining support from the country’s biggest exporter and may foreshadow spending by more Japanese companies.

“Abenomics is on its way to creating a better environment for companies,” Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, said by phone. “What Toyota spends its cash pile on may provide a hint of the future of Abenomics.”

The conservative approach of top Japanese companies has been a challenge for Abe as he tries to jump start an economy that has stagnated for two decades. The companies’ cash reached a record 225 trillion yen in the first quarter of this year, exceeding the size of Italy’s economy.

SOURCE:

Alain Japan