Toyota’s plans for India .

As arguments prevail on whether Toyota is No.1 or 2, the manufacturer is now here to give some non-controversial news.

On Monday, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe called on Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and informed them of the company’s agenda. Toyota has been working on a small car and the development stage according to them is now in the advanced stage and they are apparently finalising key vendors for the project.

Watanabe along with Indian joint venture partner Vikram Kirloskar, remained tight lipped when asked about the future plans of the company.

However, Nath confirmed that Toyota would finalize small car plans in the next 3-4 months before going in for expansion of production. Nath quoted saying "He (Watanabe) met me and informed me that Toyota would be doubling its investments in India and would also make small cars in the market that would be exported to other countries as well"

"They have said they would be expanding at their current manufacturing location, near Bangalore, and would not go for any new location,", added Nath.

Toyota enjoys a meager 3.6% share of the Indian passenger vehicle market. But one thing that cannot be taken away from them is the success they have with all their models so far. Toyota entered the market with the Qualis MUV almost a decade ago and subsequently brought in other models like Corolla, Innova, Camry etc. With increase in production, Toyota hopes to churn out 600,000 units by 2015 compared to the current statistic of about 55,000 units. 15% share is what they have in mind as far as India is concerned and lets see how they accomplish it. And whats GM upto?!

Source:-Topspeed.com