Toyota Motor to launch compact car in India early next year

Toyota’s compact car Etios would hit the market early 2011, a senior company official said.

“Etios, which is now a concept car, will be marketed from early 2011,” Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) Deputy Managing Director Sandeep Singh said.

Launching the concept car in the city today, Singh said this would mark Toyota’s entry in the mass segment of the Indian market and be placed in the upper bracket of the segment.

The price of the car would be sub-Rs 10 lakh, Singh told reporters.

He said the car has been particularly developed for the Indian market and would be manufactured at its second plant near its existing facility at Bidadi in Bangalore.

The plant has been built at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore and would have a production capacity of 70,000 units per annum.

Commercial production of Etios is expected to start from December 2010, TKM Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa said.

Toyota is having a market share of 3.1 per cent in the overall automobile segment in the country and 15 per cent in the upper-end of the market.

Singh said in 2011, the company aims to sell 1.50 lakh units and three lakh units by 2015.