Toyota India To Step Up Production By 1 Lakh Units Amid Record Sales

Toyota Kirloskar Motor India Pvt. Ltd. plans to step up production by a third in the next couple of years, building on record sales achieved in the recently concluded fiscal.

The maker of the Innova and Fortuner is setting up a third manufacturing plant at its Bidadi complex in Karnataka at an investment of Rs 3,300 crore. That will augment production by as much as 100,000 units to 445,000 units when the assembly line goes onstream in 2026.

The company currently makees 345,000 units annually.

“India is increasingly playing the role of a regional hub with cars and components being manufactured locally and exported to markets in the Middle East and Africa,” Vikram Gulati, country head for Toyota Kirloskar Motor India, said on the sidelines of an event in Mumbai to launch the Urban Cruiser Taisor in a crowded compact SUV space.

“India is the hub of Toyota's new ‘Middle East, East Asia & Oceania' region,” Masakazu Yoshimura, CEO of Toyota Kirloskar and regional head of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., said in a statement. “Our business strategy will be to continue to focus on contributing to national priorities of localisation, developing a highly skilled workforce and achieving carbon goals.”

Toyota India's production plans come against the backdrop of record sales that the Hyryder maker achieved in the recently concluded financial year.

In the year to March 31, 2024, Toyota India sold 263,512 units—a 48% year-on-year growth over the 177,683 units sold in FY23. In the month of March alone, the automaker shipped 27,180 units as against 21,783 units a year ago—an annual growth of 25%. Over the course of the year, Toyota stepped up its production capacity by 32,000 units to meet demand.

Toyota Urban Cruiser Taisor

To build on that outsized demand, Toyota India has launched the Urban Cruiser Taisor—the smallest sports utility vehicle in its model line-up—to make the most of the SUV wave that's gripped Indian car buyers.

The compact SUV, essentially a crossbadged Maruti Suzuki Fronx, is being offered with two powertrains—a 1.2-litre naturally aspirated engine and a 1.0-litre turbo mill—with manual and automatic transmissions at a starting price of Rs 7.73 lakh, ex-showroom India. Bookings are now open for Rs 11,000 while deliveries will commence from May.

The car is the fifth crossbadged product that's spawned from the Suzuki-Toyota alliance for India, following the likes of the Toyota Glanza (Maruti Suzuki Baleno), Toyota Rumion (Maruti Suzuki XL6), Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder (Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara) and Maruti Suzuki Invicto (Toyota Innova Hycross).

Toyota's India line-up now includes five SUVs (Taisor, Hyryder, Fortuner, Legender and Land Cruiser 300), three multipurpose vehicles (Innova Crysta, Innova Hycross and the Vellfire) and a pickup truck in the legendary Hilux.

“The (SUV) segment is becoming extremely popular owing to evolving lifestyle preferences where buyers are looking for a versatile vehicle suitable for multi-usage,” Tadashi Asazuma, deputy managing director for sales, service and used cars at Toyota and Lexus, said. “The new addition (Urban Cruiser Taisor) will certainly complement our existing SUV line-up.”