Toyota’s global presence is furthered with its small car range of Daihatsu, making good news from Indonesia and Malaysia. Thus, the company is on the verge of penetrating the Indian market specifically in 600-cc segment. Daihatsu, the group company of Toyota, is popular in Japan with its mini-cars under 600-cc and one such vehicle is Mira Cocoa, a car meant for women. The normal range of passenger cars from Daihatsu are Materia, Copern, Sirion and Curore (Charade) having the engine capacities of 1.5 lits. Daihatsu has been trying its best to enter the Indian market that even its dialogue with Manu Chabbria could not yield any fruits.
Meanwhile, Toyota is in the Indian market under a JV with Kirloskar on 89:11% basis. The company plans to launch a small car by the end of 2010 and it has business tie with Peugeot and Citroen for making three compact cars on same platform. The compact car from Toyota in Europe is Aygo (I go) and Peugeot cars are Peugeot 107 and the Citroen’s is Citroen C1. The agreement among these companies, made in 2001, was to share in the production cost while the vehicle will be made in Toyota’s plant in Czech Republic. There is no final word about the platform of this small car in India (resembling the one of Aygo).
But one thing is sure that the small car will bring in volume to the company to increase its share in Indian market. The existing share is 3% which is projected to be increased to 10% in another 4 years thereby making the growth rate to double digits in 2015. The sale of Toyota in the Indian market during 2009 was 46892 units which is targeted to 52000 units this year. In addition there may be export volume this year. Daihatsu’s business across the world last year was 1336000 cars brining in an increase of growth by 2% than the previous year.
The company’s plants are located in Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Pakistan, Venezuela and Colombia. In the European market, Daihatsu has a good say in Germany and the Netherlands. Toyota has its SUVs in India in Landcruiser [images](premium), Prado (mid-range) and Fortuner [images](lower range). Further, there will be an entry-level SUV costing less than Rs15lakhs as Fortuner is Rs18.45lakhs which is expected to romp in 2500 units this year.