Toyota Utility Vehicle Plan Fine-Tuning On

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd, a $350 million joint venture, is working on the design and development work of the utilitiy vehicle it plans to launch in India.

It will be designed to suit Indian conditions, said Vikram Kirloskar, promoter director of the company. He said the joint venture partners had conducted a market study covering all vehicles including luxury cars that have hit the Indian roads in the past 30 months, before arriving at a decision to have a new design. However, Vikram Kirloskar added that the first vehicle to roll out of the Bidadi project may have certain trade mark features of the Toyota productline.

Clarifying that there was no hitch to the project, Vikram Kirloskar said: We never spoke to other automakers though it took almost two years for us to finalise the joint venture. Both the partners, he claimed, had developed confidence in each others capabilities.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd would be implemented in three phases and the project has already obtained FIPB approval. However, the company is awaiting approval of the cabinet committee on foreign investments.

The joint venture would invest $70 million in phase I and $140 million each in the next two phases.

Toyota will hold 74 per cent equity, while the Indian partner will have 24 per cent.

The companys authorised equity capital will be approximately Rs 600 crore initially. The Kirloskars have named Kirloskar Systems as the co-promoter who would infuse Rs 156 crore as equity contribution.

Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) has already acquired land at Bidadi - 30 km off Bangalore - for the project and the state government has offered a host of concessions including deferred sales tax payment, entry tax and turnover tax concessions.

The Karnataka government considers the project the single largest direct foreign investment in the country.