Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is planning to produce 1,00,000 plus units of its ?new strategic small car? planned for India by the end of 2010, KK Swamy, deputy managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) told FE.

To support this project, the company is setting up a second plant in Bangalore at an investment of Rs 1,400 crore. ?We are setting up the new plant in Bangalore at the site of the existing plant with an investment of Rs 1,400 crore,? Swamy said. The new plant will see more investment on support facilities including parking bays, among others, he added. He, however, did not disclose the extra investment involved since this was being worked out.

?The new strategic small car will have high localisation,? he added. TKM at present has a vendor base of 80. Asked about the pricing and positioning of the small car, Swamy said, ?It would not be in the ?Nano? range nor would it be too expensive.?

In India, Toyota operates through Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM), a joint venture company formed with the Kirloskar Group. Toyota holds a majority stake in the JV, with 89%, and Kirloskar group holds the rest.

Once the new plant is operational, TKM plans to start exports of the new strategic small car. Asked which markets it was targeting, Swamy said, ?We are planning to export the new strategic small car. But to which markets is yet to be decided.?

The new Bangalore plant will have an initial capacity of 100,000 units and can be expanded further, he said. The company?s current plant has a capacity of 63,000 units a year.

Asked if the company has any plans to ramp up the existing plant, Swamy said, ?We don?t have any such plans.? He said that this announcement was part of TKM?s Phase II plan and the company has a Phase III plan too, which he could not disclose at the moment.

TKM has 78 dealers in India and the company plans to expand the dealership network in tandem with the new small car plans.

The Indian small car market has already attracted many global players, with Japan?s Honda already announcing its plans to roll out its small car by 2009 from its second manufacturing plant being set up in Rajasthan.General Motors has also announced its plans to introduce more small cars in India and to launch its global small car in India within the next two years.