As it unveiled the two global new concept compact cars styled as Etios at the 10th Auto Expo in New Delhi, the message is clear that Japanese car maker Toyota Motor Corporation is not just happy to be seen as a small player in the domestic market, but is preparing for the expanding popularity of compact cars in global market. The company believes India will play a pivotal role in its success in the global market as it sets to make a mark that it can produce compact mass-market cars at affordable prices. In an interview with FE?s Shweta Bhanot, Toyota Motor Corporation?s vice-chairman, Kazuo Okamoto shares company?s strategy ahead and role India will play in strengthening Toyota?s position and cost efficiency in the days to come. Excerpts:
What according to you is the biggest challenge for Toyota Motor Corporation?
The biggest challenge before us has been how to get Toyota?s high quality products at affordable price in India. We believe if we are not able to bring out products at affordable price then we will not be able to sustain ourselves at the international level. India is an important market for us, as for any other car maker. It will play a pivotal role in defining the future of Toyota globally.
Taking off from what you said about the India market, how will the market contribute to your global strategy?
We will enhance our plans of sourcing from the country for both domestic operations, that is Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TMK), and for Toyota globally. But a lot will depend upon the success of these two Etios compact cars from our new platform (entry level family ? EFC). Currently, our products in the market have high localisation expect for power train and transmission. We are getting power train and transmission from Japan for Etios at the moment but as our share increases in the market with the products we will need to re-think our strategy and look at producing engines locally. Sourcing and material from India will gain importance in the coming years.
How many more products are planned from the EFC platform?
We have some plans in conceptual phase and depending upon the success of these they will shape up. Etios is a global launch from India. It is designed keeping in mind Indian market but for world. The products will be launched in India in 2011. We intent to be volume player in Indian market with Etios.
What are the export plans for these two compact cars?
We will be launching the two compact cars for India and like to export them to other countries that make sense. No decision has been taken on the export countries as of now.
Though the R&D for the platform has been done out of Japan, will we see the R&D activities to gain momentum from India?
R&D has various phases and the earlier phase like the purchasing activity has already happening from India. But there are possibility of seeing the R&D activities increasing out of India. This time development has happened in Japan but the engineers have worked with Indian engineers here.