BANGALORE: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Tuesday announced that it will invest Rs 500 crore more in its Indian subsidiary, Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP), for the production of engines and transmissions to be used in Etios - the company’s compact car.
Etios will be produced in TKM’s second plant here, with an initial capacity of 70,000 units. The production of the small car, developed exclusively for its Indian market, is scheduled for launch by the end of December 2010.
TKAP would invest an additional Rs 500 crore, part of which would go towards increasing the number of transmission boxes to approximately 2,40,000 per year starting early 2013 and in setting up a third plant with a capacity of 1,00,000 engines per year starting in the third quarter of 2012, of which 70,000 would be for the Etios and the balance for exports. The third plant would employ 500 people.
Speaking of the sales target in India, Nakagawa, Managing Director, TKM said, “We sold 55,000 vehicles in India. This year (2010) we will sell 70,000 and in 2011 we expect to double the production and sell about 1,40,000 cars in the country.”
Making engines locally will provide a cost advantage and better quality to the engines, Nakagawa said.
Currently, TKAP has two plants in the country. One of them produces 52,000 engines per annum for the domestic market while the second plant with a production capacity of 170,000 gearboxes, partly provides for the Innova and the rest is exported to Thailand and Argentina.