All-new Toyota Vios: PH production might not start in 2023

If there’s one model that the general motoring public is looking forward to, it’s the all-new Toyota Vios.

The current generation Vios has been in production for nearly 10 years in the Philippines starting in 2013. It was updated in mid 2018 with a rather thorough facelift inside and out. Needless to say, it’s a very popular car; having been the number one nameplate in the Philippines for the last decade or more. Only in 2017 was it beaten by the Fortuner during the excise tax scare that prompted a buying spree amongst customers.

In other markets, the all-new Vios (D92A) already has a new generation model that uses a new platform developed by Daihatsu called DNGA. It was revealed in Thailand in August 2022, and is already being sold to customers there. In fact, during a recent trip to Buriram, we were able to ride in the new Vios (called Yaris Ativ) owned by a Grab driver.

The real question is: when will the D92A Vios be launched here?

We can’t tell you exactly when, but we can tell you that it will likely not be in 2023. It’s not a matter of importation because the Vios isn’t an imported CBU unlike many of the nameplates in the market. It is produced at Toyota’s factory in Santa Rosa, Laguna and is a critical entry into the CARS Program. But the information we’re getting from our insiders is that Philippine production of the Toyota Vios will not commence this year.

To put it bluntly: if it isn’t being produced here, it will not be launched yet.

There’s no official announcement as to why Toyota isn’t starting production yet. But we can make a guess that there are two reasons why. The first is the complications in setting up production with all the challenges of the post-pandemic era like shortages of raw materials, parts, fuel, electronics and the like. All those issues also apply to tooling and equipment, not just to the finished products like automobiles.

The other reason that we can find is probably because Toyota may be focusing first on setting up the production of the new generation Innova here. That’s just really a guess, but from what we understand the Innova is slated for a release in the Philippines later this year, and setting up series production for such an important model with an entirely new platform and possibly hybrid (fingers crossed) technology is going to be intensive.

So, if you’re in the market for a Vios, looks like 2024 will be your year.