Toyota Etios to be 70% localised

Toyota Etios, the hatchback from world’s leading car maker is going to be localised by upto 70 per cent. The company has shortlisted six suppliers from India for the same. The trend towards localising cars is developing from the fact that the cost of spare parts and maintenance goes down thereby becoming more feasible for the end user and carmaker. After cars like Ford Figo, Nissan Micra, Volkswagen Polo, Chevrolet Beat etc more and more carmakers are localising their products to beat competition from carmakers like Maruti who are able to sell more number of products based on the fact that the cost of owning and maintaining these cars is lower.

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Toyota Etios hatchback and Etios sedan cars are expected to be rolled out in the country by the end of the current financial year and a localisation of 70 percent is seen at the start of production stage by the company. H Nakagawa, managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motors was quoted saying by a leading financial daily, “We plan to procure many parts from Indian suppliers, with an eye on realising a high local procurement rate. We have selected six onsite suppliers, including Toyotetsu India Auto Parts Private Ltd (TTID), JBM (Jai Bharath Maruti) Ogihara Automotive India, Asahi India, Supreme Treves, Wheels India and Tata Johnson.”

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A lot is riding on the success of this model and the company is leaving no stones unturned to make this product work. With the Indian market being dominated by hatchbacks this becomes a significant move from Toyota. The Toyota Etios hatchback is Toyota’s first hatch especially designed for India. The car is suppose to have DOHC 16-valve engine with a 1200cc displacement and is expected to be priced around Rs 5 lakh. The company will launch both hatchback and sedan under the Etios series with 1.2 litre and 1.5 litre petrol engines respectively. Initially there won’t be a diesel variant available but the company could think about one after the launch.

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Toyota plans to sell 65,000 units of Toyota Etios next year of a total target of 1.5 lakh units across the country. Right now Toyota’s Indian portfolio has cars like – Toyota Corolla Altis, Toyota Camry, Toyota Fortuner, Toyota Prado and utility vehicle Toyota Innova.