India may get Toyota hybrids

The world’s largest car maker, Toyota, today said it was considering the introduction of hybrid vehicles in India, besides working on other alternative fuel models for the global market.

“We are looking at introducing hybrid vehicles in India and currently we are studying the market,” Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) Assistant Manager (Global Strategic Planning Group) Katsuhiko Koganei told a group of visiting Indian journalists here.

The new vehicle would be a passenger car, he added. Koganei, however, declined to give any time frame or the likely-hybrid model which would be introduced in India.

Sources close to the development said the company could launch its successful hybrid car ‘Prius’ in India, depending upon its ongoing feasibility study. On the initiative taken by the company on alternative fuel technology, TMC Project General Manager (Research and D Management Division) Yutaka Matsumoto said: “We are working on bio-fuel, natural gas and hydrogen-based vehicles. Toyota develops and offer products based on the right vehicle for the right place at the right time concept.”