TOKYO, July 23 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp , the world's third-largest auto maker, unveiled on Wednesday its first made-in-Europe car to be sold in Japan, saying its huge success on the continent had inspired plans to import the model.
The UK-built Avensis, developed as a strategic model exclusively for the European market, has sold about 600,000 units there since its launch in 1997. The new version, available in sedan, wagon and hatchback forms, debuted in Europe in March and will be sold in Japan later this year.
"The era of producing only in Japan for export to various regions of the world has ended," Executive Vice President Kazushi Iwatsuki said at an event held at the British Embassy in Tokyo to celebrate the Avensis' coming launch in Japan.
The auto maker already sells U.S.-made vehicles in Japan, but the Avensis would be the first European-built car to be sold at home.
In addition to supporting Toyota's sales in the stagnant domestic market, the move is expected to help Japan's top auto maker avoid redundant expenses that would have been incurred from producing the cars in Japan.
The step is also a vote of confidence for the Burnaston, Derbyshire plant, where workers were angered earlier this year after a newspaper cited a senior Toyota executive as saying UK factory workers were less productive than their French counterparts.
"Japanese customers' standard of quality is the highest in the world, so we're delighted about this move," Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK) Chairman Alan Jones told a news conference.
The car's planned launch in Japan also won plaudits from British ambassador to Japan Stephen Gomersall.
"Toyota and Britain are already partners in bringing high-quality cars to Europe," he said. "Now, we will bring the Britain-made Avensis to Japan, and we applaud this step."
Toyota, along with many of its domestic peers, has been expanding its share of the competitive and shrinking European market, and recently announced the introduction of a third shift at its UK and French plants to boost capacity.
As a result, annual production capacity will rise over 20 percent to 270,000 vehicles at the Burnaston plant next year, creating about 1,000 jobs. That is against a backdrop of industry-wide overcapacity of around 30 percent in Europe.
Takis Athanasopoulos, chief operating officer of Brussels-based Toyota Motor Marketing Europe, said the auto maker hopes to sell 1.2 million vehicles in Europe by 2010, a rise of about 60 percent from last year's level.
Toyota said it had not yet decided how many Avensis cars it planned to sell in Japan.