Toyota and Siam Cement to build hybrid car

Siam Toyota Manufacturing (STM), a joint venture between Toyota Motor and Siam Cement, announced that it would spend 5.4 billion baht (US$162.2 million) to produce a vehicle that runs on alternative fuel, The Nation reports. Toyota Motor will invest an additional sum in Thailand to boost the production of its diesel engines and start production of the Camry Hybrid. Including petrol engines, STM will have an overall production capacity of 650,000 engines a year. Toyota will spend 90 million baht (US$2.7 million) to start production of the Camry Hybrid at its Gateway plant in Chachoengsao as part of a global effort to make these vehicles popular. “Thailand should be the first ASEAN country to build hybrid vehicles,” Toyota Motor Thailand President Mitsuhiro Sonoda said at a joint press conference in Bangkok with Siam Toyota Manufacturing. Toyota said it planned to sell 1 million or more hybrid vehicles annually by the next decade. (June 12, 2008)