Toyota to set-up new engine production plant for Etios

The Indian unit of Japan based leading car maker Toyota Motors today said that it would produce the engine and gear boxes for its upcoming compact car Toyota Etios in the Indian market at company's recently started second plant here. The new plant of the company will have an initial production capacity of 70,000 units.

Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP), which is a subsidiary of the TKM, currently has 2 plants in India. The company has invested about Rs 500 crore on the establishment of these plants in the Indian market. where the first plant has a production capacity of 52,000 engines per annum, the second plant produces 1,70,000 units of gear boxes per annum, among which, most of the gearboxes are exported to Thailand and Argentina.

Moreover, the company has plans of investing an additional sum of Rs 500 crores in its facilities in the Indian market. With this investment, the company plans to take the production of gear boxes to 2,40,000 units per annum along with establishing a third plant in India with a production capacity of 1,00,000 engines annually.

Toyota India sold a total of 55,000 units of its cars in the Indian market and aims to take this figure to 70,000 in the current year. The company is expecting a high sales figure for the Etios model in the Indian market and expects that its sales will be doubled in the Indian market to 1,40,000 units by 2011.

According to Mr Vikram Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM), the production of Toyota Etios, the small car that's being developed exclusively for the Indian market and showcased early this year at the Delhi Auto Expo, is scheduled by end of December 2010.