Toyota Unveils Prius: Small Car in India Early Next Year

The world's largest car maker Toyota has announced plans to launch hybrid car 'Prius' in India early next year.

Talking to a group of visiting Indian journalists in Tokyo, Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) Vice-Chairman Kazuo Okamoto said "We will be introducing our hybrid car (in India) sometime in the beginning of next year and it will be Prius." He added "We are not at all thinking about a hybrid small car right now. However, in future it is possible but nothing has been decided". He also said that there were no plans to bring in a hybrid small car but Toyota is planning to launch a small car in the Indian market in 2011. "Technically, the new small car platform is capable of being used for a hybrid version. But there are no specific plans for it currently," he said.

Mr. Okamoto confirmed that at this moment, the new small car being developed by Toyota for emerging markets like India would be the cheapest-ever made by the Japanese company and though efforts are on to reduce costs of future models, Toyota is unlikely to consider making an ultra low-cost passenger car on the lines of the Tata Nano or the proposed car by Bajaj-Renault.

Toyota Prius is the highest selling hybrid model of TMC with a growing global sale of over 1.4 million units since the year 2000. The company's foray into hybrid vehicle segment in 1997 and in August this year, surpassed the two million mark in overall global sales.

TMC's Project General Manager (Research and Development Management Division) Yutaka Matsumoto mentioned that the company is working on a number of models like bio-fuel, natural gas and hydrogen vehicles as part of its global strategy with an aim to grow in the alternative technology market. The company would start leasing out 500 units of Prius with lithium-ion battery in Japan, US and the other European Union countries.

"Pricing is very important. Toyota is looking very positively with this small car to mark a strong presence in the country," Noritake said. In order to reduce cost of production, he said the company is looking at sharing components from other models with the proposed compact car.

"It is very important to reduce the cost. Commonalisation of components of various models is helpful and now we are assessing this aspect," he said, adding that a major portion of the components will be sourced locally. "But we are also considering to supply parts from the ASEAN countries such as Thailand and Indonesia to bring down the cost of the car," he said.