Toyota to increase capacity in India ten-fold

July 11, 2007

Auto major Toyota Motor Corp plans to boost its capacity in India tenfold to an additional 600,000 units by year 2015. Though the company has not revealed the capacity of which models will be increased, it is learnt that the car maker will team up with Honda Motor and General Motors to up capacity.

India, which is already Asia's fourth-biggest automotive market, will also see more players like Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai Motor build new factories here. Annual car sales in India may triple to 3 million by 2015, according to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

Toyota, through its local JV, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, makes the Corolla sedan and Innova multipurpose vehicle at a factory near Bangalore, while the company imports the Camry sedan and Land Cruiser Prado sport-utility vehicle. Toyota boasts of 3.7 percent of India's passenger vehicle market in the fiscal year ended March 31.

Economic growth and rising disposable incomes are boosting vehicle sales in India, where seven in 1,000 people own an automobile. Global automakers have started coming in, and investments of more than $5 billion by 2012 have been already announced to construct new factories and for capacity expansion.