Toyota might export Etios through Ennore port

Following the footsteps of Nissan Motor Company and Ford, Toyota Motor Corporation is planning to sign an MoU with Ennore Port Limited to export its upcoming Etios compact car to overseas markets. The car, initially planned only for India, will be exported to various other markets once its production starts towards the end of 2010. The Etios hatchback and its sedan derivative will be made at Toyota-Kirloskar’s upcoming small car manufacturing facility in Bidadi, near Bangalore, Karnataka and Toyota is taking advantage of the low cost manufacturing in India to export its models abroad.

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Toyota-Kirloskar Motors (TKM) said that they are looking into the possibility of sharing some of the infrastructure with Nissan, which will also export its Micra from Ennore port. TKM has indicated that discussions are on with Ennore port on identifying land but did not divulge any export plans.

The Etios was developed from scratch by Indian and Japanese engineers.Yoshinori Noritake is the chief engineer of the Toyota Etios project.  “With the concept of ‘World first–India first’, we will sell Etios first in India (in the first year) and then we look at for export markets. We hope to start exports of Etios from 2012 onwards to neighbouring countries, ASEAN and African regions. The new plant will have a production capacity of 70,000 vehicles in the first phase and this can be increased to 200,000 in the next phase,” Toyota Kirloskar Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa was quoted as saying to reporters recently.

He added, “The production of Etios sedan and hatchback cars will start from this year-end mainly for the domestic market,” he said. “Etios will be pitched against Swift and Swift Dzire. While the car’s exact price will be made known only at the time of launch, we expect it to be in the range of Swift and Dzire cars. Despite lot of features and high quality, Etios will have a localisation level of around 75 per cent initially and then will be increased to 100 per cent in the near future. “The car features a new platform engine and is 10% more fuel efficient than its nearest competitor. Given the advantage, we will price the car at a most competitive price point,” he said.

Toyota is betting a lot on its Etios models with an MPV also under consideration based on the same platform. This MPV will slot in under the Innova. Moreover, the new plant at Bidadi will have around six vendors inside the facility with giants like Jay Bharat(JBM), Stanzen Toyotetsu India Pvt Ltd, Wheels India Ltd of TVS Group, Asahi Glass, Bundy India, Tata Johnson Controls Automotive Ltd and Supreme Greaves putting up shop. Other vendors are expected to follow.

“We are going to invest Rs. 3,200 crore in this project and going to hire 2,000 people,” Hiroshi Nakagawa said. When quizzed about Toyota’s auto component exports from India, he said: “We have been exporting gearboxes to Asean and American regions. We were exporting 170,000 units a year to six different countries before but we could sell only 120,000 units last year and that too only to Thailand due to global meltdown. We hope to reach those countries again.”

Toyota would expand its sales and service network to about 150 dealers by 2010. In Tamil Nadu, five more dealerships would be added taking the total to 12.

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