Small car's length is big question for Toyota and Honda

The size of the small car is a big question for Toyota and Honda Motors. Both the companies demanded to remove the length and engine cc norms from the definition of a small car. At present, the government provides tax benefits to the small cars that have length between 4100 mm to 4450 mm along with engine capacity of 1200cc in petrol and 1500cc diesel engines. Meanwhile, SIAM has also asked the government to change the definition of the small car. It said that the definition should be based on length of the car rather than engine size. It may be noted that Toyota aims to invest around Rs 3800 crore in view to make India a compact car hub. Toyota’s senior managing director and member of the board Akira Okabe said after meeting to the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, TKA Nair, that the company wanted to make India small car base but the definition of small cars on the basis of length is making trouble.  Honda said that small cars should be based on performance not on its length. The official of the company said that the issue of size does matter when India is to make world small car hub. The company will launch its new small car in 2011-12. This compact car will follow the norms applied by the Indian government.