For Toyota Motor Corp, China wasn’t always the first pit stop when it came to unveiling key car models.
But this time, it’s different.
The Japanese automaker took the wraps off the all-new Corolla – and its China-only twin Levin – at a global premiere in Guangzhou yesterday, hours before it was put on display in California. The move marks Toyota’s deeper push into the world’s biggest auto market where it is trailing rivals.
The Corolla, the staid workhorse that seldom makes heads turn but is still loved universally, is getting a makeover at a time sedans are losing their sheen in the US while gaining followers in China.
The new models will offer features tailored for Chinese buyers, including a 12.1-inch display and an air-cleaning system to remove pollutants, as well as more connectivity functions. Sales will start in 2019.

China takes lead
China overtook the US to become the largest market for the compact sedan last year, with the combined annual deliveries of Corolla and Levin reaching half a million and taking the lead in the segment.
“They are the most important vehicles for Toyota here in China,” Kazuhiro Kobayashi, Toyota’s China chief, said in Guangzhou. “These new models embody our drive in electrification, intelligence and informatisation.”
Amid a sharp demand shift to SUVs in the US, Toyota is increasingly counting on China to sustain the success story of the world’s best-selling model of any carmaker over the last thirty years.
Reflecting the slumping demand for sedans in the US, Toyota plans to slow one of the three assembly lines at its Camry assembly plant in Kentucky next month.
In China, the Corolla and Levin contribute about 40% of Toyota’s sales and are key to changing the automaker’s also-run status.
Toyota sold 1.29mn vehicles in China last year and is set to “greatly exceed” its 1.4mn-unit target for this year, Kobayashi said.
That compares with sales of more than 4mn units each at Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. Japanese competitors Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co, though smaller globally, have also been quicker than Toyota in ramping up sales in China.
“Toyota believes it has potential to raise its market share given it is low compared with the US,” said Janet Lewis, an analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Tokyo. “The Corolla is a less important product for the US market than for China in light of declining sedan volumes.
Products tend to be tailored for the biggest markets – in this case it is the Corolla and Levin for China.” Toyota has traditionally been concentrating on the US, even after China overtook it to become the world’s largest car market in 2009. Now though, the famously cautious Japanese manufacturing giant has added incentive to shift focus as China moves to loosen restrictions while the US threatens to raise trade barriers.

Trade war
As of now Toyota has been largely unscathed, or even has actually benefited from the US-China trade war.
While China in July increased the levy on vehicles imported from the US to 40%, it almost simultaneously lowered the duty on other imported cars to 15%. That has in particular benefited Toyota’s luxury Lexus vehicles exported from Japan to China.
That, coupled with continued strong demand for the outgoing Corolla and the new Camry, helped Toyota boost China sales by 13% in the first nine months this year, bucking an industry slowdown and leading the gains by major carmakers.