Toyota may roll out small car

Toyota Kirloskar Motor is seriously considering foray into the small car segment, in a bid to achieve its target of 10 per cent market share in the passenger car segment.

T Ino, director-marketing, TKM said, the company was seriously studying chances of entering the small car segment as it believed that future for growth in India would be in this segment.

According to estimates, the market would expand to two million cars and TKM would have to sell 200,000 cars to achieve its target. Ino said, the small car was an option by which the company could achieve its target of 10 per cent market share from the current five per cent. The company has no presence in the sub-600,000 category, which at present was the fastest growing segment.

Globally, Toyota has models like Yalis, Passo, Vios or Platz in the small car segment.

However, TKM was undecided as to whether it would bring any of the Toyota models in the stable in the Indian market. Ino said, feasibility study was being done. TKM has three models in India, the Innova, Corolla and Camry.

Ino said, in 2004 Corolla global sales increased by 10 per cent to 1.2 million units replicating the growth in India the sales increased by 25 per cent to 10,195 units, making it the largest selling car in the executive segment in India.

TKM has a capacity for 60,000 vehicles and the company has lined up an investment of Rs 130 crore (Rs 1.3 billion) for improving efficiency through de-bottlenecking.

Ino said, this would also help the company achieve a 10 per cent increase in capacity.

TKM has invested nearly Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) in its plant at Bidadi, employing over 2,300 people.