By IANS
Bangalore : Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) will build a second plant near India’s silicon hub to roll out small cars and expand its production capacity for other passenger vehicles, the company’s Indian subsidiary said here Friday.
With an investment of Rs.14 billion ($350 million), the second plant will come up near its present facility at Bidadi, about 30 km from here, and commence operations in 2010 with an initial production capacity of 100,000 vehicles per annum, TMC’s subsidiary Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd (TKML) said in a statement.
“We are building the second plant to manufacture a new strategic small car and ramp up production of Corolla and multi-utility vehicle Innova to meet the growing needs of Indian customers. We also plan to use the new plant for exporting products to global markets,” TKML managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa said.
The company plans to have high level of localisation for the small car by procuring several components and sub-systems from Indian vendors.
“Our expansion plan is aimed at developing the Indian automobile industry and creating more jobs to benefit the economy,” Nakagawa added.
TKML had set up the first plant in 1999 on the Bangalore-Mysore expressway to roll out a multi-utility vehicle Qualis during the first five years of operations. It phased out Qualis and introduced Innova in 2005. It also began assembling other passenger cars in the luxury segment such as Camry, Corolla and Prado – a sports utility vehicle.
The installed production capacity was expanded to 63,000 units per annum in 2006. It currently employs about 2800 people.
TMC holds 89 percent of the equity in TKML, with the balance 11 percent owned by the Pune-based Kirloskar group.