Toyota cuts India output by 30%

Toyota, the world's largest carmaker, today said it has cut production in India by 30 per cent this month, but is not holding back its planned investments of Rs 3,200 crore in the country.

The company, which operates in India through a joint venture with Kirloskar Group -- Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), said the slowdown in the auto market has forced it to revise its sales target in India for this year.

"Everywhere else in the world, Toyota has put on hold all investments for expansions, except India," TKM Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa told reporters here.

The company, which produced 2,886 units in November, has decided to cut its production in the current month due to slowdown in the domestic automart.

"We will be producing 30 per cent less in December due to falling sales. We will decide about the future productions for January and February depending on the market condition for this month," Nakagawa said.

He said the company has revised the sales target for this year on account of falling sales.

"Our latest challenge is to reach last year's sales volume," Nakagawa said.

TKM had announced a sales target of 60,000 units for 2008. It had sold 54,181 cars in 2007 in the Indian market.

The company posted a fall of 48.55 per cent in sales in November this year at 2,087 units compared with 4,056 units in the same month last year.

The company is also planning to launch the CNG version of its utility vehicle 'Innova'.

"Currently, we are conducting the trial run of CNG 'Innova'. We are hopeful of commercially launching the vehicle by the end of January, 2009," TKM Deputy Managing Director Sandeep Singh said.