Toyota Codename 800L for emerging market to be ecocar for thailand ?

 

After years of dithering, Toyota has finally decided to enter the Indian small-car market.

Its car, codenamed 800L, is critical to increasing volumes and market share in India.
The car is being designed and developed in Japan with the BRIC economies —- Brazil, Russia, India and China —- in mind.But it would be first launched in India.

The engine will be imported from Thailand but most other key parts will be manufactured locally with an emphasis on localisation to keep costs in check.

Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP), the component manufacturing arm in Bangalore, will export manual transmissions for the engine to Thailand, which will then be imported here (TKAP also makes propeller shafts and axles for the Innova).

By the time the small car debuts in 2010, India’s free trade agreement with Thailand will have come into force and turn out be a huge cost-saving to Toyota since duty on engine imports will be virtually nil by then.

The car is expected to be available in both petrol and diesel options. There have been talks doing the rounds of a 1.4 litre diesel engine and two petrol engines with capacities of 1.2 and 1.6 litres but this has not been confirmed.

Either way, it will suit Toyota to have the engines conform to the small car definition which means that the diesel will have to be capped at 1.5 litres and the petrol at 1.2 litres.

The company could, otherwise, find itself in a situation like the Suzuki Swift where the diesel version is a small car while the petrol sibling coughs up the heftier 24 percent excise duty.

Vendors who spoke to DNA Money believe the basic version of the 800L could start off with a price tag of Rs 3 lakh going up to Rs 5.5 lakh for the top-end option. At one point, the Suzuki Swift was seen as the ideal benchmark for price but now, with excise duty on small car down to 12%, Toyota would like to make the final price tag more competitive to build its customer base, they added.

At the time of the 800L’s conceptualisation nearly two years ago, India was right at the bottom of the list with barely 50,000 units annually but has since moved up to the third position. It is likely that China could be lower now since small cars in the country are by and large passé.

As for Brazil, it is home to one of the world’s most successful small carmakers, Fiat, and clearly Toyota sees tremendous potential for its new offering there. Russia is seen to be the next big thing for the world car industry after China and it makes sense for big names in the business to have operations there.

The overall volumes for the 800 L in the BRIC nations could cross a million plus units annually by 2012-13. India’s share by this time could be 1.5 lakh units while the other three countries will account for over 900,000 units.

Toyota has been eyeing the Indian small car segment for a while now and tried to rope in group company, Daihatsu, in this endeavour.

However, costs turned out to be the biggest obstacle and the project was shelved.
The 800 L could reestablish the company’s intent to be an aggressive player in compact cars though its objective of attaining a ten percent market share by 2010 seems largely unlikely.

Source : DNA money

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