But Toyota said it has been preparing for its arrival in China for years. Not only has it cultivated its relations with its Chinese partner, it has brought an engine maker and other affiliate suppliers from Japan to the Tianjin area in recent years.
Toyota plans to produce 30,000 of the new cars annually.
Shinji Kitayama, auto analyst at Shinko Securities Co in Tokyo, believes Toyota has a good chance in China, given its strength in compacts.
"Toyota is going after the mass consumer car in China," Kitayama said. "But in the beginning, competition is going to be intense."
But no one can be sure what the Chinese will want in a car. Toyota is betting they'll want a vehicle that looks like a car rather than the SUVs so popular in the US and Japan.
"There's no mistake the demand for cars is growing in China," said Tetsuji Okada, general manager of Toyota's China Division. "But we really don't know what's going to sell."
The shabby homes, stretches of dusty earth and the rows of commuter bicycles in Tianjin are stark reminders of the poverty still prevalent in China -- perhaps the biggest obstacle to Toyota's drive toward success here.
Liu Shugang, a 35-year-old Tianjin Toyota employee who drives a tiny US$4,800 Chinese-made car, isn't sure he can afford the new Toyota. But he's sure his nation can learn from Toyota.
"Living in an island nation with no resources, Japanese people have a sense of crisis and feel they have to keep working harder. That sense of crisis is missing in China," Liu said.
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