Following other car majors such as Volkswagen, Renault and Honda Japanese auto major Toyota on August 22nd said it could launch a small car in India within two years and its second plant may come up at the existing location in Bangalore. Toyota is said to be weighing its options between India and Brazil for locating the small car project. The company had set a target of garnering 10 per cent of domestic market by 2010 and said it would need a small car to achieve the volumes.Toyota’s announcement on its small car has been expected for months now the company has given some hints. What’s important is similar to Honda, Toyota is planning two new small cars not one as beleived.
NDTV on August 21st reported that Toyota is having active negotiations currently with the Kirloskars, Toyota’s partners in India to finalise the strategy for a small car launch by the end of this fiscal. Confirming the scoop Toyota today come with an announcement on its small car. “Toyota is developing a small car, which may be introduced in India within two years. While we are looking at several countries to market this product, it will be first launched here in India,” Toyota Motor Corporation’s board chairman Fujio Cho told. But it is still not clear if the launch will be through the existing joint venture-Toyota Kirolskar or via new company, the Kirolskar Daihatsu. Daihatsu Motor is a separate company where Toyota owns majority stake and is Japan’s largest small carmaker. According to NDTV, Toyota is keen to launch at least two new India specific models and may bank heavily on the Yaris platform to build a hatchback and entry-level sedan to save costs. Toyota plans a new plant with an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore near its existing bangalore plant.
Toyota which has 3.7 percent market share plans to raise its annual capacity 10-fold to 600,000 vehicles a year by 2015. Toyota india also aims for 15 percent of India’s passenger vehicle market by 2015. Toyota Kirolskar built 44,000 Corolla compact cars and Innova minivans at its factory in Bangalore last year. The company also sells the imported Camry sedan and Land Cruiser Prado sport- utility vehicle. Sales of Toyota cars fell 19 percent to 7,784 units in the fiscal year ended March 31, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. However In the utility-vehicle segment, sales rose 19 percent to 43,559 units.