The Hindu Business Line : Toyota’s foray into small car could begin with India

Market share
The company expects its small cars to be launched in India in the next two years.
It is also eyeing 15% of the passenger vehicles market in India by 2015

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 21 Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation’s small car could be making its debut in India.

“We are looking at several countries for our new model, of which India could be the first market,” said the Toyota Motor Corporation’s Board Chairman, Mr Fujio Cho, when asked about the company’s plans for a small car on the sidelines of a Indo-Japanese business meet. He said that the company expected its small car to be launched in India in the next two years.

According to the Toyota Motors’ Web site, $10,000 (Rs 4 lakh) is the lowest price range in its global portfolio of cars. Currently, the domestic small car segment is dominated by Maruti Udyog Ltd, which enjoys half of the overall market share with models such as Alto, Wagon R and Estilo. General Motors, on the back of its newly launched small car Spark, is also recording growth.

While Tata Motors has already announced its plans to launch the Rs 1-lakh car next year, Nissan-Renault is mulling entry into the segment.

Toyota’s strategy

Mr Cho’s comments confirm Toyota’s membership in this club, though last month Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt Ltd’s (TKM) Managing Director, Mr Atsushi Toyoshima, had said that the company had not finalised plans for the small car segment.

Toyota’s strategy seems similar to that of other auto majors who are looking to expand market share significantly with their respective small cars.

Meanwhile, talking about expansion of their production capacity in Bangalore, Mr Cho said: “If at all we need more capacity, it would be in the same area of our existing facility.”

TKM, the joint venture company of Toyota and Kirloskar Motors, also said that it was looking to grab 15 per cent of the passenger vehicles market in India by 2015 from 3.7 per cent at present. In July, the company had stated that it plans to increase capacity at the Bangalore plant to 6,00,000 units by 2016.