Toyota to build Camry hybrid in Australia and Thailand

Toyota wants to double worldwide sales of its hybrids to over 1 million units a year within the next decade and is adding production capacity to hep it get there. In Japan today, Toyota announced plans to add production of Camry hybrids at two more plants in Australia and Thailand. The Thai plant will start first with about 9,000 hybrids per year starting in 2009. At a press conference attended by both Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe, plans were announced to build hybrids at the company's Altona plant near Melbourne. The plant will start turning out 10,000 hybrids a year in early 2010. The state of Victoria, where the plant is located, reportedly provided $35 million (AUS) in tax incentives to get Toyota add hybrid production. A number of Australian governments have previously pledged to purchase domestically build hybrid vehicles for their fleets as soon as someone builds them. The Camry announcement is the first; General Motors' Holden division will likely join in as well at some point.

[Source: Toyota]