Toyota Kirloskar to launch its small car in December 2010

Toyota Kirloskar 2010Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) has reconfirmed its plan to launch a compact car specifically for the Indian market. The new car will roll out from the company’s Bangalore plant in 1 year and 10 months from now, TKM’s Managing Director Mr. Hiroshi Nakagawa said. The car will be launched with both petrol and diesel variants and is expected to be equipped with a 1.2 – 1.3 litre engine. It will have 60 per cent local content. Toyota is planning to double its dealership network, which presently stands at 82, over the next two years to cater to the market for the new car.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) has announced that it will launch its small car by the end of 2010, after the construction of its second manufacturing plant at Bangalore is completed. The launch plan for this car is in tune with Toyota’s strategy for India.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Deputy Managing Director of TKM, Mr. Sandeep Singh said “We will launch our small car by the end of 2010. We expect our new production plant to be ready by that time.”

He said, “We will make only 70,000 small cars from our plant as the demand for the vehicle has fallen by 30 percent”. The company has not yet decided the pricing for the new Toyota small car.

“The new car will have 70 percent localization of components in order to make it more cost competitive”, he also stated.

The car manufacturer is likely to consider setting up an engine manufacturing plant too. With respect to that Mr. Singh quoted, “Earlier there was a plan of outsourcing engines from outside the country but after putting up the second car plant with a huge production capacity, it does not make sense to manufacture the engines elsewhere. However, the company is yet to take a decision on this.”

Since the new small car is being developed on a completely new platform, there could be more cars based on the same. “It could also be used to build a sedan and other compact cars”, said Mr. Singh.

Also, in order to enhance its presence in smaller cities, TKM plans to expand its network to 150 dealerships by the end of 2010 from the current 85.