Daihatsu may be getting ready to pull out of the European market, but as a last call, the Japanese firm will introduce one more model to its range, the new Charade. And as you’ve probably guessed by now, the “new” Charade is in fact a Daihatsu-badged version of the outgoing Toyota Yaris, the successor of which, has already been introduced in Japan and will be showcased through a hybrid study in Geneva.
The Charade will be available exclusively with a 1.33-liter gasoline engine delivering 99 ponies, mated to a six-speed manual gearbox as standard, with the option of an automatic gearbox. Daihatsu’s rebadged Yaris will be offered with two equipment levels and the starting price is expected to be below that of its Toyota twin.
Toyota’s small car subsidiary announced its decision to abandon the European market from January 31 2013, last December. The move was attributed to the increasing development costs to comply with emissions regulations in Europe, as well as the “appreciation of the yen against the Euro”. In short, Daihatsu decided it was no longer profitable to sell Japanese-made cars in Europe.
The firm’s sale results didn’t help either, with the company moving a mere 19.300 units in 2010 in ten European markets, which accounted for just 5.3 percent of the brand’s global sales.
