The Hindu Business Line : Japanese auto cos step on the gas in India — To introduce commercial vehicles and tractors too

THE Japanese automotive brigade seems all set to go full throttle in the Indian market over the next few months. Not only have major Japanese firms lined up huge investments for the Indian market, the companies are sprucing up their local product portfolios and are even set to make an entry in the so far unexplored automotive segments such as commercial vehicles and tractors.

The Indian market may soon see commercial vehicles under the Isuzu brand, with Swaraj Mazda likely to roll out medium and heavy commercial vehicles under the Swaraj Isuzu brand.

Swaraj Mazda is learnt to have entered into a technology tie-up with Isuzu to roll out commercial vehicles. This was following the Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo stepping up its stake in the company to 41 per cent.

Meanwhile, after the influx of Chinese tractors, the domestic tractor industry will see a major Japanese player entering the market with Japanese tractor maker Yanmar set to pick up stake in homegrown firm International Tractors Ltd.

The two-wheeler market too is likely to see some excitement with Suzuki set to make a re-entry into the domestic motorcycle segment in end-October. According to industry sources, the company's first rollout will be a 125-cc bike Heat. This may be followed by a launch in the 150-cc segment. The company is investing about Rs 200 crore in the first phase of operations. This, of course, is not all that Suzuki has earmarked for India. The company is investing about Rs 3,272 crore towards setting up a new car manufacturing unit and a new engine/transmission unit in Haryana.

Other Japanese two-wheeler companies such as Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India and Yamaha are also working on expanding their product portfolio.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor Company is planning to roll out its popular model Civic in India next year and is investing Rs 650 crore to ramp up the overall production capacity at its Greater Noida unit to 1,00,000 units from the current level of 30,000 units.

Toyota is also expected to take a decision on setting up a second manufacturing facility in India over the next few months. The decision will be linked to Toyota's plan to roll out a small car in the Indian market. According to industry sources, the company is seriously looking at setting up the second unit in the North of the country.

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