Toyota says it is aiming to to avert production losses in its important Indian market by assigning greater emphasis to localisation.
The Indian venture Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) faced a scarcity of components in April and May due to the closing down of a Japanese plant following the earthquake.
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“The only way to avert similar situations in future is to increase the localisation level of models in India,” TKM managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa, told just-auto at the launch of the Toyota Corolla Altis.
“We have to further increase the vendor base in India which goes in [some] way to improve the self-sufficiency level in Indian operation. “With the commencement of operation in the second plant, the localisation level would likely be more than 90%
The company is also gearing up to launch a Liva hatchback in India at the end of this month. It had also planned an Etios launch in April, but was forced to postpone due to the Japanese earthquake.
Toyota added its Indian operation is back to normal.
“Production is in full swing in both the plants in Chennai,” said TKM deputy managing director, marketing, Sandeep Singh.
“We have even introduced a second shift to overcome production losses in April and May.”
Due to the production losses in last two months, the company has revised production targets this year to 140,000 units compared to the earlier estimates of 150,000 units annually.
It will set a production target of 210,000 units from calendar 2012.
TKM launched its new Toyota Altis in the Indian market today (16 June). Last year, the C segment sedan market was 32,800 units and grew at 46%.
“We have share of 28% in the C segment sedan market, we would likely be down by 1% owing to production losses in the last two months,” conceded Singh.
Toyota plans to manufacture 11,500 Corolla Altis units in 2011.
Growth in the Indian automobile sector is slowing down however, from an increase of 30% in 2010 to 17% in the first five months of this year.
