Toyota's small car

Describing its extent of growth in the country so far as not satisfactory, Toyota Motor Corp today said it was impossible to attain a substantial presence without a compact car in its stable.

Toyota started production in India in December 1999 and in nearly six years, it could secure (only) five per cent of the one million a year passenger car market in India which was not satisfactory, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Managing Director Atsushi Toyoshima told reporters here.

Toyota operates in India through TKM, its joint venture with the Kirloskar group.

Toyoshima said Toyota was seriously studying proposals to set up its second plant and also to launch a compact car in the country but insisted that no final decision had been taken either on the location or the launch time.

Japan's biggest carmaker has made no secret of its ambition to capture ten per cent marketshare in India by 2010 and 15 per cent by 2015.

Asked if by 2010, small car project would be a reality, Toyoshima said: "Definitely, we should. Without that (small car), it's impossible to gain substantial presence in the Indian market".

He said his "gut feeling" is that the Indian passenger car market would double every five years and by 2015 would be four million units annually.

Via: ET