Toyota to ramp up sourcing from India
By agencies   |   Friday, 03 February 2006, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Luxury car maker Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is hopeful of taking the size of outsourcing components from India for its Japanese parent Toyota Motor Corporation to a higher level and including a wider range of products. Announcing this, TKM’s Vice-Chairman, Vikram Kirloskar said that India could possibly become a prototype testing ground for Toyota cars developed for the international markets. “At present, such testing is done in countries like Indonesia and Thailand. We wish to make India a testing ground for Toyota cars in the next five years or so,” said Kirloskar. Outsourcing of gearboxes from India for Toyota's global operations was on a high note, and the Indian company is hopeful of increasing the volumes of this particular assembly and later looking at widening the range of products that can be outsourced from India. During the current financial year, an estimated 1,40,000 units of gearboxes are likely to be shipped out of India. He said, “In January alone, we saw a rise of 10 percent in volumes. Going forward, we are hopeful of increasing this further.” Both Kirloskar and TKM's managing director Atsushi Toyoshima asserted that Toyota's plans to make compact cars in India were still in the contemplation stage, and no decision either favoring it or otherwise has been arrived at yet. Kirloskar said, “It would be very challenging to make a small car in India and keep it profitable now. There are already three big players -- Maruti, Hyundai and Tata Motors -- we will have to compete with.”

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