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Hi,


It's official that TKM will roll out small car in 2010...............

Welcome

Toyota to invest Rs 1,400 cr

Small Car For Indian Market To Roll Out From Bidadi Unit By 2010

TIMES NEWS NETWORK



Bangalore/New Delhi: It’s finally official. Toyota will have a small car in its Indian line-up in two years. And the car will be produced at its Bidadi facility near Bangalore.
After being a fringe player in the fast-growing market for years, the world’s No. 2 car maker on Friday announced a Rs 1,400 crore fresh investment for a new factory to launch a “new strategic small car” in the Indian market by 2010.
“The car currently being developed in Japan will meet the broad needs of customers in India. However, we will also export the car from India,” K K Swamy, deputy managing director of Toyota’s Indian subsidiary Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), told TOI.
Toyota is unlikely to want to compete in the Tata Nano segment, but the new car is expected to be as per the ‘small car’ definition specified by the Indian government to enjoy the lower 12% excise duty, as against the 24% on big cars. Swamy declined to answer questions on the price point for the car.
The new plant is expected to generate direct employment of 1,800 to 2,000 people. “But including that of our suppliers, we expect the total fresh employment to be close to 7,000,” Swamy said.
The existing plant, which manufactures the Corolla sedan and the multi-utility vehicle Innova, employs 2,700 people. The company also imports the Camry luxury sedan and the Prado.
TKM currently uses only 120 acres of the total 430-acre plot it has in Bidadi. Swamy said that along with the new plant there would be additional investments in ancilliary services, a power plant, a new office building and a parking yard for manufactured vehicles.
Toyota is believed to have zeroed in on key vendors for the project and Swamy said the company planned to start with an initial production capacity of 1 lakh passenger cars. “While much of it would be for the small car, we will also manufacture the Corolla in the new plant,” he said.
Toyota’s small car plans in India come just when existing domestic heavyweights like Maruti-Suzuki and Hyundai are strengthening operations and others like Honda and Volkswagen are planning to launch compacts. Compacts account for around 70% of car sales. Speculation about a Toyota small car started almost three years ago, when it was said to be considering introducing a car from its associate company Daihatsu’s stable.
Toyota has an 89% stake in its Indian joint venture while the rest is held by the Kirloskars. Swamy declined to say whether the new investments will come in the same proportion.
He said some of the key suppliers were considering to invest around the Bangalore plant and pointed out that the company planned to have a high local content for its compact to make it competitive in the price-sensitive market.
The company’s existing plant has a capacity of around 63,000 units. It sold 55,403 units in India in 2007-08 and had a low 3.5% share of the passenger vehicle market.

Nearly One Year Back, I Went With a Guy from TKM With a questioner to all the premium customer of Toyota. And went around and asked them what kind of a small car they would like , diesel or petrol , abs or non abs , and some rather dumb questions like how poweful would u want the brakes ? DUH very powerful , what should the car look like swift or santro or matiz ? Copule of guys said it should look like Swift , while others said it should look like a mix of all those cars.....

Well the Guy from TKM Assured that the Car will roll out in 2010.....along with four more models from Toyota.....

This should be a massive investment from TKM if the news is true.Its too alarming why the 2 japanese manufacturers are taking this long in plunging into the small car segment.Anyways better late than never.Wonder which model they have in store for us?
ram

As discussed before, Japanese manufacturers do take along time for finalizing the model they want to launch. Take for eg; The Innova concept started 4 years before the launch date. Similarly, for small car, they have taken around 1 1/2 years to decide on the model they are planning to launch in India. After finalizing the concept, they will study the would be cost of model they want to launch by giving the suppliers the drawings and asking them for quote and after finalization of parts cost, they will come out with announcement of their plans. The same has been done for other models also. This is how Toyota works. :)

source : http://www.familycar.com/roadtests/t...-Door-rear.jpg

This car must be like the Toyota Echo sold in the US i guess, as a low cost option.This one is smaller than the Corolla. Here is an review link.

Toyota Echo Review - Edmunds.com


They might make a special APAC version based on this car/Yaris, to keep it at 5-6lakh price range they promised. And 2010 seems to the right time as many two box owners now will migrate to small sedans.

I dont think Toyota Echo will make it to India. It could be Aygo or Yaris for India. Are Toyota planning to launch a brand new model in India?

For Your Information........The TKM Guys Say that they are gonna launch 5 new models by 2010 They are : -

New Corolla :- The Current Generation's production will be stopped in a span of about 4 to 5 months. the new generation again is coming with only a petrol engine (the same 1.8 with minor ecu tuning) .again the pricing have been hiked to about 14 lakhs.The that no diesel will be available for the indian market have been mainly slated as the TKM guys explained was that
40 % of toyota sales worldwide consists of the corolla of that 90% is of the gasoline varient. !!!!!agree:


Midsize Sedan :- Maybe the Yaris Sedan or Vaios ,something in the size of the current Honda City and a direct competition

Superhatch :- something in the tune to a Suzuki Swift & Skoda Fabia with similar pricing will definitely be either of the Aygo or the Yaris hatch.

Compact SUV : - A SUV in the price range of the current Camry (Must be the Fortuner)

And Last But Not The Least

Compact Car : - It will be a solely made for India car with pricing similar to that of a WagonR,Estilo or Santro.

Heard through the wire that they are also considering the Camry as the SKD Kits insted of CBU to cut costs and stay in the market with fierce competition expected from new Honda Accord and likes of the Passat and 3 Series.

cheers:

Someone I know who works with Toyota India confirmed that small car plans were announced internally. The plan is to have 3 variants - 1.2L and 1.5L Petrol, and a 1.6L Diesel. The model will be available in hatch as well as 3 box. Price range expected is 4-6Lakhs.

I guess it is going to be Toyota Yaris...or upgrade verion of its.

For the hatch they have been talking, it is a brand new platform specific for India, TKM has clearly stated.

New Corolla :- The Current Generation's production will be stopped in a span of about 4 to 5 months. the new generation again is coming with only a petrol engine (the same 1.8 with minor ecu tuning) .again the pricing have been hiked to about 14 lakhs.

Yikes! 14 lakh for a compact jap motor? Are they planning to rebadge it as lexus?

It'll probably be a stripped down Yaris, with downgraded engine options and maybe a thrifty diesel.

I am also expecting them to offer a slushbox as an option, even on the cheapest model.

Or they can also launch the Aygo, and modify it for "Indian" conditions.
Toyota Aygo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

But the picture of proposed Toyota code name 800L car is nothing but the Japanese automaker Daihatsu's -Sirion model hatch back car.

By the way Daihatsu's Sirion hatch back is in its dimensions -the closest to Tata's Indica.

Toyota re-badging Daihatsu's Sirion in Indian market??:)

It was clearly mentioned in the article that Toyota had plans to bring in Daihatsu for small car market and it called off the plans as it was working out too expensive.
Toyota has been eyeing the Indian small car segment for a while now and tried to rope in group company, Daihatsu, in this endeavour.
However, costs turned out to be the biggest obstacle and the project was shelved.(as per article)



The Toyota code name 800L car will be launched 1st in India and then sold worldwide.