Small car from Toyota could be Yaris makeover

One things for sure, this one need to be the cheapest and the most fuel consicious car toyota might ever have produced. Target customers being the Indian car buyers(Indian four wheeler segment being one of the fasted growing markets in the world)

Competetion:

1. Nissan building a 3000$ car, one of the cheapest cars in the world
2. Skoda with plans to enter small car segment
3. Honda plans to customize Fit/Jaaz for indian market

EcomomicTimes quotes

When contacted, KK Swamy, deputy MD, TKM, “As part of our policy, we do not comment on our future projects or products.” Fellow Japanese carmaker Honda is using its Fit/Jazz platform to churn out a next-gen product for India.

Auto industry sources say Toyota may follow the Innova model for its small car sourcing from specific low-cost centres and selling the model in Asia and the BRIC markets. The small car may also come with both petrol and diesel powertrains, say sources.

Toyota’s Indian subsidiary, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, is likely to announce its small car project before the end of this year, say sources. The car is being built on a new platform in Toyota’s second plant. This plant is likely to come up in Bangalore with an investment of around Rs 2,000 crore.

“We plan to make an announcement regarding the small car in the next two months,” sources said. Toyota’s global small car is being designed in Japan. “The new car is being built on a new platform and that is the reason we have taken more time than was expected,” said Toyota Kirloskar Motor MD Atsushi Toyoshima.

Toyota to delay launch of next Prius hybrid

Toyota Motor Corp has decided to postpone the launch of the third-generation Prius hybrid model by half a year to the spring of 2009, industrial daily Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun said on Friday.

The world's biggest automaker has not officially announced the timing of the launch, but a consensus had built among industry watchers that the popular gasoline-electric car would be remodelled by late 2008.

The Nikkan Kogyo said Toyota decided to take more time to ensure quality after it decided to forgo replacing the nickel-metal hydride battery used in the hybrid system with a lithium-ion battery for the first version of the new model.

Toyota and battery partner Matsushita Electric Industrial Co are developing a lithium-ion battery that many expected would power the motor in the next Prius. The paper had said last month that those plans were also delayed due to safety concerns.

A Toyota spokesman declined to confirm the delay of the Prius launch, saying it was not possible to move back a plan whose timing had not been set.

"Our policy is to roll out any model when all the conditions are in place," he said.

The first Prius debuted in 1997 as the world's first mass-market hybrid car, and was vastly improved for the second generation launched in late 2003.

By far the best-selling hybrid car on the road today, the Prius has almost single-handedly boosted Toyota's image as a "green" carmaker, also helping drive sales of other cars.

Toyota is boosting production of the Prius by 40 percent this year to 280,000 units, although margins on the car are believed to be thin due to the high cost of the hybrid system.

Toyota sold 186,000 units of the Prius in 2006, and 313,000 hybrid vehicles in total.

Japanese Automakers move production bases to Asia

Japanese automakers are increasing exports from production bases in other Asian countries to take advantage of better worker skills and tariff-free arrangements, the Nikkei reported, without citing sources.

Asia replaced North America as the largest overseas production base for Japanese car firms in 2006 with output reaching 4.13 mln vehicles, the business daily said.

Honda Motor Co Ltd is boosting this year's exports from Thailand to Australia and New Zealand by 40 pct, or 47,000 units, while Nissan Motor Co Ltd (nasdaq: NSANY - news - people ) is doubling exports of its Tiida subcompact from Thailand to Australia to 10,000, the Nikkei said.

Last year, Toyota Motor Corp exported 100,000 IMVs (Innovative International Multi-purpose Vehicles) to more than 90 countries from Thailand and it will step up exports from this year.

Suzuki Motor Corp plans to triple output capacity to 300,000 vehicles a year at its second Indian assembly plant in 2008. Of the total, half will be shipped to Europe and the Middle East, the Nikkei said.

source: Forbes.com

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