The Hindu Business Line : Toyota Kirloskar to build 2nd plant near Bangalore

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd (TKM) on Friday announced that it will invest about Rs 1,400 crore ($350 million) to build its second plant near its existing facility near Bangalore for manufacturing a small car.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s Deputy Managing Director, Mr K.K. Swamy, said the second plant will start operations from 2010 and it will have an initial annual production capacity of around 1 lakh car units. The capacity will be increased over time.

The second plant will be used to manufacture passenger vehicles, including the Corolla as well as a “new strategic small car,” which is being developed with the aim of meeting the broad needs of customers in India, where motorisation is expanding rapidly. Furthermore, TKM plans to export them in the future, Mr Swamy said.

He said the small car will have high local procurement content which will enable the company to price the car competitively. The company also plans to increase the dealerships and widen its sales and service network as small car will mean larger volumes.

In line with TKM’s increasing annual production capacity, its affiliated suppliers are currently considering investment in the Indian industry as well, and both of these factors are predicted to have a major impact on the economy, Mr Swamy said.

The current capacity of the existing plant at Bidadi which is 40 kms from Bangalore is about 63,000 units. During 2007, the joint venture in which Toyota Motor Corporation has 89 per cent and the rest is with the Kirloskar Group, sold around 54,000 units.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has around 2,800 employees currently.

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