Toyota announces expansion plans in India

Toyota announced that it will hire 1,500 people in India starting next year as the company gradually expands its production capacity. This will be done through a joint venture with Kirloskar Group. Toyota has earmarked Rs1,650 crore (US$331.8 million) to increase production capacity by one lakh unit and for increasing the localization of components by 2014. The joint venture, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) already employs around 4,500 people in the two facilities it runs in Bangalore, 70% of which are permanent employees. The combined capacity of the Bangalore facilities is being increased from 1.5 lakh units to 2.1 lakh units by 2012. TKM has several other expansion plans, among them:

• Expansion of capacity in its second manufacturing facility from 70,000 units per annum to an annual capacity of 1.2 lakh units
• Setting up of an engine plant and expansion of its transmissions capacity to meet demands for the Etios and Liva models
• Launching of the diesel variants of the small car models, Liva and Etios
• Increase of production volume of Etios and Liva

(September 6, 2011)