Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the Indian subsidiary of Japanese-auto giant Toyota Motor Corp, would hire 2,000 employees for its upcoming compact car plant that would start operating from the end of 2010.
Currently the company, with its existing manufacturing plant near Bangalore, has around 3,000 employees. It will have total workforce of 5,000 employees once the second plant (compact car plant) start its operations next year, said Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director (marketing), TKM, after launching the New Camry model in Bangalore on Friday.
TKM is constructing its second plant with an investment of Rs 3,200 crore to produce compact cars at its existing factory complex. The construction of the plant is in progress and will start functioning as per schedule, Singh said. But the annual production capacity of the plant has been reduced to 70,000 units from the earlier plan of 1-lakh units. However, there will be an option to increase the capacity based on the market demand, he added.
Singh said the compact car would be launched in India under hatchback and sedan categories but only in petrol version. He said the company will expand its dealership to 150 dealers by next year from the current 86 across the country.
As a sign of recovery from the recession, TKM has also increased its production at its existing manufacturing facility. The company reduced its monthly production to 3,000 units during September-October period last year. The company pushed up its sales after offering huge discounts during last festival season and increased its production to 4,000 units during February-March. Singh said the company would touch 5,000 units per month in production by August this year as it hopes that the market will see positive movement in the second-half of this year. Currently, TKM manufactures Innova and Corolla models at its Bangalore plant while it imports Camry and Prado for the Indian market. The newly launched Camry will be available in four grades and priced between Rs 21.26 lakh and Rs 23.40 lakh.