Toyota to set up second car plant in Bangalore

Toyota plans Rs 1,500 cr spread in India

Rediff.com

Japan's biggest carmaker Toyota Motor Corp is considering an investment of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) for expanding operations in India, sources in the company and Karnataka Government said on Tuesday.

Toyota, which operates in India through Toyota Kirloskar Motor, its joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, has submitted to the Karnataka Government for approval a proposal to set up its second car manufacturing plant.

The proposal is slated to come up before the high-level committee meeting, to be chaired by Chief Minister N Dharam Singh, in Bangalore on October 6.

A TKM delegation led by its managing director Atsushi Toyoshima met the Chief Minister and Industries Minister P G R Sindhia on Tuesday and told them about the proposed expansion plan.

Toyoshima told Singh and Sindhia that some other states are also in the running for Toyota investment and requested them not to make the proposed investment figure public. A formal announcement on investment plans for India is likely to be made from the company's headquarters in Japan, sources said.

TKM started production in India in December 1999 and has so far invested Rs 1,500 crore in its plant at Bidadi on the outskirts of Bangalore. It currently has a capacity of producing 60,000 units annually.

Toyoshima had said recently that without a compact (small) car in its stable, it's impossible to attain a substantial presence in India. The company currently commands a five per cent market share of the one million-a-year passenger car market in this country.

Toyota has made no secret of its ambition to capture 10 per cent marketshare in India by 2010 and 15 per cent by 2015. The company has projected that the Indian passenger car market would double every five years and by 2015 it would be four million units annually.

Toyota's Innova and Corolla are manufactured here, while Camry and Land Cruiser Prado are being offered in India as completely built units.
"We want to be present in all segments (in India) from large to mini in future," Toyoshima had said.