Toyota to Delay Sports Car Plan With Fuji Heavy, Nikkei Reports

By Naoko Fujimura

Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. will postpone production and introduction of a small sports car co-developed with Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. to 2012 or later, the Nikkei newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.

Toyota decided to change its plan to have Fuji Heavy build the sports car from the end of 2011 as the domestic auto market keeps shrinking, the report said.

The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker, which nearly doubled its stake in Fuji Heavy to 16.5 percent in April, is reviewing its new projects as the global recession cripples car demand.

To contact the reporter on this story: Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo at nfujimura@bloomberg.net.