Toyota Corolla, till recently Japan's largest selling car model, will hit the Indian roads on January 14 carrying a price tag of Rs 9 lakh to Rs 11 lakh (Rs 900,000 to Rs 1.1 million).
The car, which will become Toyota's flagship model in India, will be the cheapest C-segment car in the country.
At that price, it will also be one of the cheapest Corollas available anywhere in the world outside West Asia where there are tax rebates.
Sources said the Corolla will sport a 1.8 litre petrol engine, and there will be three variants to chose from.
"The car will be manufactured-assembled at Toyota India's Bidadi plant near Bangalore. Fifty per cent of the content of the car will be imported," said company vice-chairman Vikram S Kirloskar. He, however, declined to confirm the price.
At the price of Rs 9 lakh to Rs 11 lakh (Rs 900,000 to Rs 1.1 million), the Corolla will also compete with the likes of the Honda City and the Mitsubishi Lancer at the top-end of the C-segment, and pull consumers from the premium D segment.
The total C-segment sales is around 80,000 units a year, of which the top-end is not very large. The D segment is much smaller than the C segment.
But sources said Toyota will be hoping that not only will the Corolla create a niche positioning for itself, it will eat into the market share of other models in the C segment which are more than two-year old and may have lost their initial appeal.
The company has been working on the project codenamed `979N' for more than a year now. Innovative and consistent cost cutting initiatives aimed at halving manufacturing costs has helped the company to reduce the price tag.
There has been substantial improvement in terms of air-conditioning, seating, ground clearance, braking and body styling to customise the models to Indian conditions.
Toyota had launched the multi-utility vehicle `Qualis' in India in 2000. It also launched the premium sedan Camry late last year.
Sales of the Qualis has stabilised, while the Camry is competing against the likes of the Hyundai Sonata, Honda Accord and the Ford Mondeo in an extremely low-base market segment.
"We are, therefore, launching the Corolla with the hope that this will fetch us considerable volumes," said a Toyota India executive.
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