The Hindu Business Line : Toyota contacting vendors for small car

New Delhi/ Bangalore, April 9 One of the world’s large car makers, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), is learnt to have zeroed in on vendors for the small car it plans to manufacture out of India.

Within two months of the TMC President, Mr Katsuaki Watanabe, visiting the country, the company’s senior Managing Director, Mr A.Okabe, will be here. On Friday, Mr Okabe is scheduled to meet component vendors in the Capital to discuss the company’s long-term strategy for the Indian market and its plans for the small car.

In January end, Mr Watanabe had met the Prime Minister and senior Government officials to apprise them of the company’s plans to double investments and capacity in India. Sources told Business Line that Toyota has started issuing Letters of Intent (LoIs) to vendors, an indication that its small car project is finally taking off.

While it has not issued LoIs to all its vendors, it has finalised plans for some of the components that require a longer period of time to be developed.

Since the last two years, Toyota had been asking vendors to submit their quotations; but considering the frequency of visits by its top management to India, component companies expect an announcement this time round.

“Mr Watanabe had indicated during his visit that Toyota has been slow in understanding the Indian market. But he would now like more action to make up for the lost time,” said a source familiar with the development. This could be through new launches every year.

New launches

“Toyota is also planning to launch a model every year in the domestic market,” said a source close to the company. For its much- talked about small car, Toyota would first launch in markets like India, and later in other markets. TMC’s top management had stated that India could be one of the venues from where the company would debut its small car for the global market. India is already becoming recognised as a small car hub, with Nissan-Renault, Volkswagen and Honda entering the segment.

Toyota’s small car would be manufactured from a plant located near its existing plant in Bidadi, for which the company is expected to make an investment of Rs 1,500 crore.

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