Toyota to ramp up sourcing from India

Company wishes to make India a testing ground for Toyota cars in the next five years.

Premium and luxury car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is hopeful of taking the size of outsourcing components from India for its Japanese parent Toyota Motor Corporation to a higher level and including a wider range of products.

The company's vice-chairman Vikram Kirloskar today said India could possibly become a prototype testing ground for Toyota cars developed for the international markets.

"Today, such testing is done in countries like Indonesia and Thailand. We wish to make India a testing ground for Toyota cars in the next five years or so," Kirloskar said on the sidelines of the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by Teri.

Kirloskar also said outsourcing of gearboxes from India for Toyota's global operations was on a high note, and the Indian company is hopeful of increasing the volumes of this particular assembly and later looking at widening the range of products that can be oursourced from India.

In the current financial year, an estimated 1,40,000 units of gearboxes are likely to be shipped out of India. "In January alone, we saw a rise of 10 per cent in volumes. Going forward, we are hopeful of increasing this further," he said.

Both Kirloskar and TKM's managing director Atsushi Toyoshima asserted that Toyota's plans to make compact cars in India were still in the contemplation stage, and no decision either favouring it or otherwise has been arrived at yet.

"It would be very challenging to make a small car in India and keep it profitable now. There are already three big players "" Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors "" we will have to compete with," Kirloskar said.

Toyoshima too said Toyota's executives in Japan are still contemplating making compact cars in India, though no decision has been arrived at. TKM executives declined to say anything on the issue of the recent labour problems at the company's Bangalore plant.

They, however, added that the company is keen on expanding its operational capacity at the existing location "" and no alternative location is on its radar for now.