Toyota denies plan for $6,000 cars in India

Toyota has denied a press report that it is to begin selling cars in India priced at around $6,000 as the Japanese auto giant looks to boost its share of the country’s growing affordable car market.

“There are no such plans,” a Toyota spokesman said today after the Asahi Shimbun report.

The

Asahi Shimbun said the company would create a new brand for the low-priced vehicle to avoid devaluing the Toyota name, the daily said, without naming sources, adding that Toyota was eyeing a 2016 entry into the sector.

Japan’s biggest automaker began selling its low-cost sedan Etios in India in 2010, but with a price tag of $10,000. It is still expensive compared with cars made by rivals such as Tata Motors, whose Nano sells for as little as $2,900.

Toyota has said it wants to achieve 50 per cent of its worldwide vehicle sales in emerging markets from 2015 compared with 40 per cent in 2010.