Taipei, Jan. 30, 2008 (CENS)--Kuozui Motors Ltd., the local producer of Toyota cars, has been enlisted as one of qualified complete-car export bases of Toyota, according to Kuozui chairman Yann-huei Su.

Su made the statement at a ceremony held to welcome new company president Hikita Ryo from Japan. If everything goes smoothly, the chairman pointed out, Kuozui is expected to kick off exporting locally-made Toyota models this year.

The first complete-car car model to be exported by Kuozui is likely to be the new Toyota Altis compact sedan. Su said that his company aims to ship about 20,000 locally made Altis models in the first year and the volume is expected to rise gradually.

Su refused to comment on the target export markets because such information might affect competition between Toyota and other auto brands.

Kuozui is an auto-manufacturing joint venture between Toyota Japan and local Hotai Motor Co. Ltd., which is also the local agent of locally produced and imported Toyota and Lexus cars. Currently, Kuozui is the largest automaker in Taiwan with annual production volume of about 100,000 units.

Under the strong support from Toyota Japan, Kuozui has been actively expanding its production capacity at its plant in northern Taiwan`s Guanin, though the domestic new-car sales plunged to 20-year-low in the past two years. The car maker has been evaluated as one of the best-quality overseas Toyota car plants for many years.

Industry sources pointed out that Kuozui owns both quality and cost competitiveness among global affiliates and the company applied to Toyota Japan for possible export chances so as to upgrade its equipment utilization ratio.

(by Quincy Liang)