At a time when Japanese car-maker Toyota Motor Corporation has announced its plans to cut overall capacity by between 700,000 and one million vehicles a year, the company's India unit is planning to touch a production of 2 lakh units by the year 2015.
"Our target is to achieve a production of 200,000 units by 2015. With the launch of the compact car by the end of 2010 or beginning 2011, we aim to reach our target. The compact car will be manufactured at Toyota India's upcoming second manufacturing facility in India," Yusuf Haji, manager, western regional office, sales operations division, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, told Business Standard on the sidelines of the launch of Toyota’s third sports utility vehicle (SUV) brand in the domestic market, called the Fortuner.
The company, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, expects to sell over 2000 units in 2009. "Fortuner has sold 250,000 units in more than 60 countries since its launch in 2005. Toyota has launched Fortuner in India with an aim to gain at least 50 percent of the market share in the SUV segment. The SUV segment is two per cent of the total passenger car segment in India.
The Fortuner, with a 3.0-liter diesel engine, is priced at 1.85 million rupees at showrooms in New Delhi. The model will be assembled at the company's plant Bidadi in India. Toyota Kirloskar has a market share of three per cent in the passenger car segment and aims to sell 52,000 units this year, compared with 51,800 vehicles in 2008.
