Toyota's small car for India

[rajtheindian]

Originally Posted by muneemmk

Toyota or Honda is not to blame for the 108% import duty imposed by our government, if there was no such thing who would buy a Corolla or a CRV ?

I have a differnet understanding here correct me if I am not wrong
108% import duty is for the complete built car and NHC or corolla or Civic will not fall under this category, yes the Merc S class, E class Audi all belongs here. Considering this how can Honda or Toyota justify the cost for NHC or Corolla

[senindra]

This should be an interesting read. If of course it has not been posted earlier


"Global automobile giant Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) on Thursday set the ball rolling for a newly designed compact car for the Indian market by laying the foundation stone for a Rs 1,400 crore new factory near Bangalore. The new compact car, expected to hit the Indian roads by mid-2010, is currently being developed by Toyota engineers with inputs from Indian engineers, top company officials said here today.

The foundation stone was laid at Bidadi, about 40 kms from here by the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in the presence of Akira Okabe, Senior Managing Director, TMC, Ryoichi Sasaki, Chairman, Vikram Kirloskar, Vice Chairman and Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd.

"The factory will be ready by mid-2010 and we are yet to finalise the launch date of the new car. We have basic concept of the new car ready and very shortly we will finalise the design of the car," Okabe told reporters.

He said the second plant will see an initial investment of Rs 1,400 crore. However, the investment does not include certain other costs like installing robots, jiggs, a special type of tool among others. The additional amount of investment required for the plant will be worked out later, he said. The second plant will be spred over 130 acres of land and includes a new test track. The plant will have an installed capacity of 100,000 units annually and will employ 2,400 people.

Though the new compact car is designed for the Indian market, the initial design features indicate that it can be exported to other markets in Asia, Okabe said.

Toyota's first plant in India was built in 1998 with a capacity to produce 60,000 units per annum. It manufactures Innova, a multi utility vehicle and luxury sedan Toyota Corolla. While the premium luxury car, Toyota Camry and sports utility vehcile, Prado are imported as completely built units. "Toyota aims to capture 10 per cent of the Indian passenger car market by 2010. The new plant will help us achieve this target between 2010 and 2015," Okabe said. Currently, Toyota has 3 per cent market share in the 1.2 million car market in India.

Okabe said Toyota will not involve its group company, Daihatsu, in designing the new compact car for the Indian markets. However, the company may involve them in the future projects, he added.

Toyota has till now invested Rs 2,000 crore in the Indian subsidiary, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd along with the Pune-based Kirloskar group as its partner, which holds 11 per cent.

Toyota also manufactures transmission kits (gear boxes) for its global production facilities from its another subisidary company -- Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts Ltd, located near the first plant. The installed capacity is 630 units per day.

TKM, reported a turnover of Rs 3,600 crore during 2007-08, registering a growth of 24 per cent over the previous year."


Source : Business-Standard :: Toyota revs up for small car in India

[rangaraj]

Originally Posted by senindra

Toyota's first plant in India was built in 1998 with a capacity to produce 60,000 units per annum. It manufactures Innova, a multi utility vehicle and luxury sedan Toyota Corolla. While the premium luxury car, Toyota Camry and sports utility vehcile, Prado are imported as completely built units.

I wonder with the small car project being quite some time away and this being ready, if they will start local manufacture/assembly of the camry and the Fortuner to become a lot more competitive compared to the Honda.

[vasudeva]

While Toyota revs up its plans for small car, I rev up my savings to buy that car as a replacement for my 2003 Corsa.

[DRC]

While it is more relavent and appropriate for Toyota to expand with small car in focus, I am still disappointed that they are not talking about fortuner yet! :-(

[Ym-enjn]

When people are ready to buy their big cars upto their maximum capacities, then why do they want to make a small car. They have studied Indian market too long and too wrong. They must sell their study to Hyundai or Maruti and stick to their global plan in India as well.

[groom]

Which car for India. Although thay are telling INDIA SPECIFIC NEW CAR, but some how this car must be based on some platform which they already have .
My guess if entering in swift segment then it wiill be Yaris or vitz platform, if lower segment it will be from Daihatsu stable, if we are lucky then both.:-)

[groom]

one more point forgot to mention, many people have already spotted testing of Daihatsu small car in India.

[ajnagpur]

This could be Toyota's small car for India as Toyota is Daihatsu's parent company

[senindra]

I dont think it would be Yaris, if the would want to compete with Swift/i10/Palio and the likes. Yaris is "slightly" on the higher side of the segment *price wise, not size wise*.

IF it is at all the Yaris then it will be too expensive compared to Swift and the likes. The 1.0L Yaris would be priced at what the Swift Vxi sells for probably and I am sure toyota would not want to do it.

Aygo with perfectly fit the bill, though with a slightly smaller engine at 1.0L, 68bhp with a top whack at 150 plus. In my view, it might be something similar to the Aygo - I guess it will be a good one if the come with this.

[indivic]

Originally Posted by ajnagpur

This could be Toyota's small car for India as Toyota is Daihatsu's parent company

Which one did you mean? Reading post 32, I guess it will be from the Yaris platform, since Toyota don't intend to involve Daihatsu.

Also I don't think that the Passo/Boon/Justy can lend itself to a sedan.

[muneemmk]

I think they are building a car from the ground up for the following reasons!!!!

A.To keep the costs at bay(Maximum Localization)
B.Cater to the specific Requirements of the Indian community
C.Production Capacity would be very high (Close to one lakh units annually)
D.I went along with a guy from Toyota Kirloskar asking around to current Toyota customers what they wanted in a small car.

More Info Here

[snaronikar]

Toyota might be building the small car right from scratch. Usually, they will take 36~40 months from the date of launch for complete R&D, sourcing of parts locally, testing of the car mass production and launch of car. The same was done for Innova. Most probably, the Small car will be of Yaris platform. But they intend to bring in more models which are eco friendly.

[condor]

harimakesh : Toyota re-badging Daihatsu's Sirion in Indian market??
groom : .. but some how this car must be based on some platform which they already have.
groom : one more point forgot to mention, many people have already spotted testing of Daihatsu small car in India.

It's possibly a Daihatsu being adapted for us. I've also heard abt the Daihatsu's being tested.

I hope that it's not the Yaris or the Echo. Took me a long time to come even a little close to accepting the near pre-historic looking Corolla. For me, the Yaris & Echo are already in the bin.