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Toyota Etios low-cost car revealed at India’s Auto Expo

By Matt Brogan |

Toyota has today unveiled its new strategically important car for emerging markets at India’s Auto Expo.

Dubbed ‘Etios’, the sub-light compact hatch is aimed at markets that include India, Russia, Latin America and other emerging markets that are quickly replacing major Western markets as a key battleground for car manufacturers.

“India will play a pivotal role in Toyota’s global expansion plans and the time has come for us to strategically accelerate our growth here,” Toyota Vice Chairman Mr Kazuo Okamoto said.

Driven by the world’s second-largest population, government incentives and a relatively strong domestic economy, Indian car sales are set to grow about 16 per cent this year to 1.4 million vehicles, after posting double-digit growth through most of 2009.

“With the introduction of Etios, we hope to attain a sizeable market share in India in the shortest possible time,” said Mr Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director of marketing at Toyota’s local unit, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Toyota said more than 2,000 engineers in India and Japan worked for four years on the Etios, which is code-named EFC for entry family car.

The company did not specify a price range for the new model, which is expected to sell for “well under US$10,000″ when it goes on sale later this year. Toyota expects annual sales of 70,000 units of the Etios in India as it looks to ramp up growth in the fast-growing market. Full specification details will be announced closer to the launch.

With Reuters


 

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  • Baddass

    Vivid colour schemes can’t hide this instantly dated design. This could have been on sale in the 90′s and it wouldn’t have looked out of place.

  • RaserTech

    “Under $10,000″ still 4 times more than a Tata Nano?

    Not priced for the underclass, but for the middle and upperclass punters.

    Might be ok for AUS etc though?

  • Richo

    It’s a balancing act RaserTech, at the end of the day its the overall profits that are more important. You could price a car for the lower class and sell 100,000 of them, or price them to the middle class and sell 50,000 of them, at first glance the 100,000 sales sounds like a better deal, but if your profit margin on the lower class car is only $100 a car compared to $1,000 a car on the middle class model… suddenly building to a price for the masses doesn’t always make sense!

  • bhagwan singh

    Toyata is a brand known best in the world.under us$ 10,000 still a good deal when you are getting worlds most reliable brand in india, specially manufactured for indians.