[TusharK]

Toyota has said that it has no plans to launch electric cars in India. According to the company, at present, the country lacks the charging infrastructure essential for electric vehicles. The Japanese car maker thinks it would be ideal to think about introducing an electric vehicle only after the required infrastructure is in place.



Shekar Viswanathan, Vice-Chairman and whole-time director at Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), said that the company has no plans to go electric. Toyota already has an electric vehicle in its global portfolio. But, TKM is not likely to ask its parent company for an electric vehicle at the moment. However, Vishwanathan also claims that TKM would be able to launch electric vehicles in quick time.

The Government of India has been pushing towards e-mobility. It has been vocal about its plans to stop production of all fossil fuel-powered cars in the country by 2030.

Source: Economic Times

Link to Team-BHP News

[R2D2]

TKM's Chairman is being practical.

The Govt. certainly needs to do its bit to enhance and optimise power generation and distribution infrastructure before huffing and puffing about electric vehicles.

Of course 2030 is still 13 years off and by then the country would hopefully have the infrastructure to cater to EVs.

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Toyota has said that it has no plans to launch electric cars in India.

In reality, the statement should instead read like:
"Toyota has no plans to launch any new car in India"

Lets face the reality. The Toyota lineup we get in India, is hardly a patch on what is available overseas.

[SourabhSuresh]

I don't think the charging infrastructure was as good as it now is in the US before the advent of TESLA. If the electric car that rolls out is practical, the demand would force the government to create the said infrastructure. The concerned minister has already said the plans are on to make most of the cars electric within the coming decade. It may turn out to be just words or we may see India leading the way in the large-scale integration of electric vehicles.
Whatever the case may be, Toyota Kirloskar motors has a lot of problems on its plate. The current lineup will not bring in the numbers and without any planned joint ventures in the anvil, the current volumes won't justify further investment.

[srishiva]

Charging infrastructure ?
Did Tesla have charging infrastructure ? Charging was supposed to be done at home. Later they added the infrastructure and they did it themselves as part of their plan to encourage electric car usage and enhance their use far away from homes.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Toyota has said that it has no plans to launch electric cars in India. According to the company, at present, the country lacks the charging infrastructure essential for electric vehicles. The Japanese car maker thinks it would be ideal to think about introducing an electric vehicle only after the req

Quite hilarious. They just want to keep on making money selling old cattle without making further investments thats all. Turning a blind eye on a business that might have one of the best chances in a country like India can turn out to be a big mistake. Blaming the infrastructure for it? I really needed to be told a joke to cheer me up today & I have to thank Toyota!

Or perhaps, they are being wiser than perceptible from the news & have already accepted defeat at the hands Suzuki India!

Originally Posted by abhishek46

"Toyota has no plans to launch any new car in India"

Good one!!!
But not right. You are forgetting the real stunners that they are launching like the latest school-project driven Etios Cross.
"They are continuously striving to offer more safety, convenience, world class features & premium products to their valued Indian customers". At least the press releases say something like that.

[fuelinmyveins]

The statement should be read as "Toyota is ready to be booted out of India".

The minister has made his intentions clear well in advance that the government is ready to bulldoze it's way and a cabinet bill is being prepared to take care of charging infrastructure.

Let Toyota stick to its diesel guzzling dinosaurs and soon they will find themselves becoming redundant in a sea of electric cars from tesla (figures crossed), Tata, hyundai, suzuki etc.

Tata has already designed electric versions of bolt, tiago etc., Suzuki is investing in lithium ion battery plant, BHEL has tied up with ISRO to develop low cost lithium ions battery packs and all Toyota wants to do is to milk their diesel guzzling dinosaurs to hilt.

[Shreyans_Jain]

Toyota's bread and butter are the Innova and Fortuner. They are global products, not some made for India crap. It is neither desirable, nor feasible to mess around with their 100% proven, time tested and successful formula just because a minister of one country has said some big words. International corporations cannot function this arbitrarily.

It will be fair to expect electric Hilux based vehicles only when the entire market decides to go electric - right from Australia to South Africa to Indonesia to Mexico to Thailand. These are utility vehicles and will continue to sell for as long as they provide the utility and durability. Plus, whatever electric solution they come up with has to be equally practical, reliable and long lasting. Otherwise, it will be a waste of effort.

[mn2363]

It's a pity really that the makers of Prius can be and are so short sighted.

They could have broken the mould (maybe still can if they want to) and put together a battery lease plan along with 2x modular/ out of box usable charging stations (one each for home & office as most buyers will be self driving) for the Corolla. They have this platform & packaging combo overseas.

For starters it'll be better than the utilitarian diesel they have, and going by the excellent Lexus hybrid review by Mr. Narayan here on Team-BHP, Toyota is confident enough in their electric hybrid tech 's robustness.

But maybe with Toyota Japan aiming for a solid state super efficient battery tech by 2022 they don't see a profitable business investment scenario for Indian market. Or maybe they will then eventually launch the then older hybrids here, won't be the first from Toyota Bharat, would it?

[aim120]

Toyota doesn't have any electric vehicles that can compete against a Model 3 or even a Bolt. Infact none of the Japanese car makers do and it will take them atleast 4 to 5 years for them to get a competing car and by 2030 Toyota Kirloskar will milking us with Gen 3 Innovas.

[volkman10]

Here is a speculation why Toyota will not venture into EV directly in India.

The EV portfolio of Suzuki will be a joint collaboration with Toyota is secured. This will be the first step towards the Suzuki - Toyota alliance.

Exports of this 'Made in India' cars, in addition to catering to the domestic needs of Hybrids and EV's are the tipping point in making the project viable

Globally, Toyota and Suzuki have also joined hands to form a technology partnership. If reports are to be believed then India will play an important role in this business partnership between the two Japanese giants. The details of this partnership have not been shared yet, but sources say that a small hybrid vehicle might be on cards that would be jointly developed by Suzuki and Toyota. The two companies will source components jointly which would bring down the overall development cost of the vehicle

Akito Tachibana, MD of Toyota Kirloskar :

As we hear that India is one of the candidate regions considered to be covered in the implementation of this partnership, we at TKM look forward to the outcome under this memorandum

link

[GTO]

Toyota India is stupid!

Let me tell you why - here is one of the world's biggest automakers in one of the world's biggest markets (some say we'll be a top 3 / 4 market worldwide) and their response - LETHARGY. That's the reason why Toyota is primarily a utility vehicle seller in India, and with just two products - the Fortuner & Innova. When they tried to enter the mass market segments for market-share, they did so with outdated cars that fell flat on their face and are bought primarily by the taxi market today. 7 years up and the outdated cars are still on sale, with no sign of a replacement.

Toyota is not a leader in India. It's a follower. If it was a leader, it would bring in hybrid technology, something it's a master of. Worldwide, Toyota has now sold over 1 crore hybrids! This technology is perfectly suited for fuel-efficiency loving India which drives in bumper-to-bumper traffic everyday. Bring out a hybrid car that can do 25 kmpl under 10 lakhs and watch how you change the game. But heck, when you can't even launch contemporary hatchbacks in India - despite having them readily available from global HQ - what can one expect?

A weakling like Suzuki (Suzuki is tiny on the global scale) brings out more tech than Toyota does in the segments that count. Suzuki's sub-10 lakh cars are also more contemporary than Toyota, as are Hyundai's. Shame on you, Toyota.

They made the same stupid mistakes in China which is now the world's biggest or 2nd biggest market (depending on the year). That's why Toyota doesn't have a single car in the Top 10 in China, and neither is it a Top 5 carmaker there.

Like Honda, Toyota primarily focuses on the USA only. In other countries, they are stupid or slow or both.

Originally Posted by mn2363

They could have broken the mould (maybe still can if they want to) and put together a battery lease plan along with 2x modular/ out of box usable charging stations (one each for home & office as most buyers will be self driving) for the Corolla. They have this platform & packaging combo overseas.

Originally Posted by aim120

by 2030 Toyota Kirloskar will milking us with Gen 3 Innovas.

[pgsagar]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

Toyota's bread and butter are the Innova and Fortuner. They are global products, not some made for India crap.

They are not global products. Primarily for South East Asian markets. I don't think they sell these two cars in China/Europe/US.

[OrangeCar]

Why am I not surprised here. In fact, I find it quite surprising that we even have expectations from this brand.

One needs to understand how Toyota operates in India. There are two pillars in the firm. One - Indian. Two - Japanese. Now, the 'superior thinking' Japanese will shut down "the hungry, eager to launch many products, capture the market" Indian, because the Japanese has studied the market (with loads of color printed A3 sheets, with perfect font sizes!); where as Indian has just lived in India.

Next, some sane Japanese thinks a product is perfect for Indian market. He goes to his Japanese bosses in Thailand/Japan. This Japanese is sent to India as an expat (and not to other countries because he is in the Japanese hierarchy, low rung). His Japanese bosses will shush him away, calling him low in hierarchy and thus low in IQ. The idea is dead, even before it takes root.

Among such chaos, nobody really cares within Toyota if the firm is doing well or not. India is not a priority market for the firm's bosses (the real ones in Japan). It is not in the scheme of things for Toyota. India is not yet a matured market for them.

Now, will Toyota take risks or make experiments in India? Nope! It will not launch hybrids. It is not a leader in battery tech cars - and thus will lose out globally too, soon! (Tesla + BMW + Ford + Chinese brands)

Also, Toyota wants to go tangential with Hydrogen and not battery. Which is absolutely fair. They want to go a different direction. But only in Japan. Nowhere else. Not even the US or Europe (Forget India!). Yes, they did display the Mirai in US/Europe. People of US and Europe were blessed to see it.

This way of working of taking ones' own sweet time, risk adverse, wait and watch - will cost Toyota a lot in the fast paced world (it must already be costing a bomb for Toyota in terms of opportunity costs).

Originally Posted by GTO

Toyota is not a leader in India. It's a follower.

Completely disagree. Toyota is not even a follower. Followers at least do something and try to catch up/make moves in the market. Toyota is just lost and/or doesn't care. It is like Eshaan Awasthi of Taare Zameen Par. Just looking at stars in the sky.

[hybridpetrol]

Toyota is content with the sales of the Innova Crysta & the new Fortuner. They launched two good products, and they can sit on the laurels for the next decade!
India can wait until 2025 for the next Innova update, and Toyota India can hope that nobody else launch a better competing product meanwhile. Hopefully their parent in Japan has some plans for the EVs and push it down the throat of their Indian counterparts soon.
On the other hand, we can see Mahindra doing a lot of experimentation in the EV landscape. They will be better equipped by 2030 to make a complete switch to the EVs.