"Up to today consumer-end sales of new Crown has topped 10,000.", said Wang Fachang, executive deputy general manager of the FAW Toyota Motor Sales (FTMS), on July 15. Wang Fachang had come to Tangshan of Hebei province to award a tablet to Tangshan Jidong Material Trading Group, which is engraved with the words - Crown Management Team according to the Beijing Times. Jidong won the tablet because it had purchased 21 new Crowns at one time. According to Wang Fachang a company that buys Crowns for all managerial personnel above assistant general manager will get the tablet.

The grand ceremony by FTMS was obviously designed to demonstrate Crown's ambition for the business car market. By the end of June FTMS has sold more than 8,000 Crowns, of which institutional purchases accounted for some 1,200. These were largely business cars. However, these do not represent the whole of Crown's business car market, "certainly these are at least 25 percent.", said Bu Hongsheng with the FTMS.

As a matter of fact up-market business cars, particularly those purchased by the government have always been the market controlled by Audi.

On the day China-made Crown was officially put on the market in March Tianjin purchased some one hundred domestically made Crowns to be used as business cars. This was only the beginning of Crown's entering the up business car market. Bu Hongsheng said among the 1,200 Crowns purchased by institutions governments at various levels accounted for about 550. "Besides, there are many orders that still remain to be collected.", said Bu.

Bu said the China-made Crowns purchased by the government are mainly used for reception use, not for the exclusive use of government personnel. According to Toyota's plan China-made Crown will have sedans of even lower displacement. By then the impact of Crowns on government procurement market will truly show itself.

Audi and Crown are both under the FAW group, said Bu, "we still need to make the market bigger together."

By People's Daily Online