Toyota to make inroads into rural India

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), an Indian subsidiary of Japan based auto-giant Toyota, is aggressively planning to enter the rural market of the country by enhancing its dealership base in this heartland India. The company is planning to take the number of its dealerships to 150 in the country by the end of this year. It has targeted to sell about 70,000 units of its vehicles in the Indian market in the calender year 2010, as against 55,000 units sold in the same period last year.

TKM, a joint venture company which came in into existence in the year 1997, operates mainly in the urban India so far. But now, as the company plans to capitalize on the opportunity in the compact-car segment with the launch of its small hatchback Etios in India and wants to leave no stone unturned. It is also mulling over the option of exporting its perspective compact-car Etios from India by 2011 and aims to take its export figures to 150,000 units by next year. The Company is recruiting around 2000 employees at its second plant in Bangalore where it plans to invest about Rs 3,200 crore.

The company is all set to enter the mass volume segment with the Etios concept – ‘World First, India First'. Mr Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director of TKM, said in a statement given to a leading news daily that the world's largest auto-markets like Japan, US and EU are facing a tough time with lowering down sales while the Indian market is emerging as the most promising auto-market in the world. India is a very attractive market for the company. He added that at present, India has only 16 cars per 1,000 people against Japan's 593 cars per 1,000 people. The company believes the car market in India will grow in the range of 10% as against the global growth rate of 5%.