Multinational small car manufactures vie to tap growing Indian market

BANGALORE - Toyota Kirloskar Motors and General Motors have launched their new compact cars to tap the fast-growing and price-sensitive India market of which small cars now occupy a substantial share of around 70 per cent of the annual car production of about one million.

On Sunday, these companies showcased their latest small car models.

Toyota, which had carved out a name in luxury car segment, has entered into compact car sector with their new cars named Etios.

The models are in hatch back as well as sedan versions and these are likely to be priced in the range of rupees 700,000 to 900,000 (15,378 to 19,772 US dollars).

“We are a newcomer in the compact car segment and the compact car segment accounts for 50 percent market in India. Let us see how it goes. We have lots of hope from this car. We have worked very hard in understanding the understanding the customer’s requirements and we are trying very hard to make it a class above,” said Vikram S Kirloskar, Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motors.

General Motors India has gone one step forward and is planning to bring automated technology of luxury cars into medium and small cars. This was marked by the launch of a model named Cruze.

“Most of the growth is in high-end segment (mini car) because automatic transmission are more expensive so to bring them to mini car segment which is very price sensitive is very difficult. But as you saw today we are looking at developing the affordable automatic version,” said Karl Slym, President and Managing Director General Motors India.

The new small cars in India cars may even be fuelled by gasoline and diesel in the future.

With all these facilities, it has been estimated that the indigenous car market is going to move beyond the 3.5 million mark very soon. The major players in the small car industry are Maruti Udyog, Tata Motors and Hyundai Motors.

Now Toyota Kirloskar Motors and General Motors India are fiercely competing and trying to out-do each other in terms of design, innovation, pricing, and technology.

India is now one of the world’s largest manufacturers of small cars.

Hyundai Motors exported around 240,000 cars from India in 2008. By 2011, Nissan Motors has plans to export 250,000 vehicles produced at its Indian plant.

General Motors has set a target of 50,000 cars for export from its Indian plant by 2011. (ANI)