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Locally Assembled Toyota Corolla Cross May Launch Earlier Than Expected

Toyota Indus Motor Company (IMC) is poised to begin the local assembly of the Corolla Cross Hybrid soon.

A reliable source privy to the information told ProPakistani that the major structural and mechanical developments are complete and that the company is now working on the car’s fit and finish.

He added that the automaker has started working on the car’s nameplates, badges, and fitments. The source stated that the company is moving full steam ahead and aims to launch the Corolla Cross early next year.

Citing a confidential document, the source added that the vendors are almost done developing the local parts, adding that Corolla Cross’ assembly may begin as early as late December.

Details

The Corolla Cross came to Pakistan in early 2021 as a competitor to the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage. Although, it came as a completely built-up (CBU) car with a massive price tag, which dampened its appeal.

It features a 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder hybrid petrol engine that combines with an electric motor to send 168 horsepower (hp) and 305 Newton-meters (nm) of torque to the front wheels via an e-CVT gearbox. The Corolla Cross hybrid boasts an impressive fuel economy of about 18 to 20 kilometers per liter.

It has several useful features such as parking sensors, hill-start assist, cruise control, traction control, stability control, collision warning, seven airbags, auto-rain sensing wipers, and dual-zone climate control, among others.

Launch

According to Topline Securities, Toyota IMC recently stated during its quarterly briefing that Corolla Cross will debut in late 2023. Although, the latest reports suggest that the company may launch its first locally assembled hybrid car in H1 2023.

Car enthusiast opinion suggests that the car company has sped up the Corolla Cross’s local assembly after the launch of the Haval H6 HEV in Pakistan.

Since the latter has taken the mantel of ‘Pakistan’s first locally assembled hybrid vehicle’, the former may go for ‘Pakistan’s most popular locally assembled hybrid vehicle’ title.


  • It’s been said that Toyota, like Suzuki and Honda will start an old vehicles buyback program using funds from the fuel subsidies. This will be done to encourage the use of HEVs (not fully EVS) and encourage the Japanese to move manufacturing (not assembling) to Pakistan, to compete with the Chinese in our ever growing automobiles industry. With an economic disaster in Europe, and specifically Germany that can’t power it’s own industries without Russian gas, the void left in this market needs to be filled. Since the Lahore station is obsessively monitoring everything (happy Hanukkah by the way), they’ll encourage the Indians to consider doing this instead, via the now, defunct Quad. What Ghulam Muhammad should’ve done in the 1940s, Pakistanis are doing almost a century later. He should’ve brought Mahindra and Muhammad to Pakistan with him but everyone was more interested in “official positions” back then. As they are now. Nothing has changed, except for the physical features of the viceroys. They don’t look as pale, anymore. Wonder what happened? That was a jahil kabadders’ reference. Let’s hope they get shipped to the land of opportunity immediately so they may pursue their American dream like the Latin Americans. They’ll fit right in. Same kind of features, food and even behaviour. They should go pick cotton on their farms, as their actual worth is. But for some reason, we took the concept of upward mobility a bit too far in Pakistan. We need to do tone it down a little. And, we also need to manufacture more modern tools for our farming. Our farmers have been complaining about this for decades. Duties on farming equipment imports were reduced but nothing changed. We didn’t build or assemble anything new or worthwhile. Neither did our agricultural produce increase enough for us to become a net exporter as we once were. Drones are an important feature but has aerial monitoring of crops and aerial delivery of chemicals truly been implemented? Have we benefited from it? Please focus on that as well. Agricultural equipment should be placed in the same industry as vehicles and locomotives, considering the importance of the agriculture sector in our economy, and how vastly spread it is. Farming equipment alone is as big a market as all these other vehicles, combined. Construction equipment is another void that needs to be filled. Significant progress has been made in the automobiles industry. We just need to implement the rumoured buyback programs. Now, it’s time to focus on farming and construction equipment.


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