The new president of Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT) has outlined strategies to strengthen the company's capabilities, with a target of designing and producing Toyota cars entirely within Thailand in the next five years.

Kyoichi Tanada, who took the helm at TMT at the beginning of this month, said Toyota Manufacturing Asia-Pacific (TMAP) would help the Thai unit to match all aspects of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (TMC), including technology development.

TMAP, based in Samut Prakan, has been responsible for the engineering and manufacturing elements of the Japanese automaker's regional operations for the last two years.

"With our 47-year presence here and the quality of Thai engineers, I think we have the capacity to have cars designed and produced completely from Thailand hopefully within five years," said Mr Tanada.

Although Toyota's domestic sales are projected to slide 30% from 2008 to about 200,000 units this year, the company will maintain its leading position in both passenger car and pickup truck segments, said Mr Tanada, 55.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker, was overtaken by Honda in Thailand's passenger car sales in April and May but regained the top spot last month.

TMT said preliminary figures give Toyota a 43.2% market share in the passenger car segment in the first half of this year, compared with Honda's 39.3% share. Toyota has a 41% share in the one-ton pickup market, slightly more than Isuzu's 39%.

The overall vehicle market fell 28% year-on-year to 230,000 units.

Mr Tanada said Toyota's Gateway plant has resumed two-shift production since early June, ramping up the capacity of the Camry Hybrid, to be launched at the end of this month.

The Camry Hybrid, the first of its kind in the Thai market, will be priced at 1.8 million baht. Toyota targets monthly sales of 1,000 units.

"Actually, the passenger car market has not faced a sharp slump, especially when compared with the pickup truck segment," he said. "I think the government should try to cut interest rates for car purchases to stimulate sales in the provincial market, which accounts for most of the segment's sales."

Meanwhile, Toyota has not finalised details of its environment-friendly eco-car project in Thailand, said Mr Tanada.

Toyota is among six companies that expressed interest in producing an eco-car in Thailand. Nissan is set to be the first to launch one in 2010.

Nissan and two other automakers have confirmed their commitment to launching a "green car" in Thailand next year, said the Industry Ministry.

Vudhigorn Suriyathantananont, TMT's senior vice-president, said the company officially submitted a letter to the Finance Ministry asking it to waive import taxes on hybrid components from Japan for local assembly.

Components such as energy-efficient batteries and convertors are not made by domestic part-makers, he said.

The Thai automotive industry expects vehicle production to shrink 32% from 1.39 million units in 2008 to 940,000 units this year due to the global recession and Thailand's political turmoil.

Domestic sales are estimated at 430,000 units, down 29.5% from last year. Exports, which represented 54.26% of production last year, are expected to drop 35% from 784,000 units in 2008.