Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it may bring out a small car in India in two years as it tries to grab market share from Suzuki Motor Corp. in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Toyota, on the point of becoming the world's largest automaker, may make the small car in India, and subsequently in other emerging markets, Chairman Fujio Cho told reporters in New Delhi. The carmaker, based in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, plans to raise its annual capacity in India 10-fold to 600,000 vehicles a year by 2015, it announced last month.
Toyota may also build a factory in India next to its existing plant near the southern city of Bangalore, Cho said. The automaker would join Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. in adding capacity in India to challenge Suzuki's Maruti Udyog Ltd., which has a 50 percent market share in the country.
"For Toyota to continue increasing profit, it needs to expand in markets like India," said Ichiro Takamatsu, a chief investment officer at Alphex Investments Co. in Tokyo.
"There is enough room for Toyota and other companies to share the growth in India, as more people will be able to buy cars."
Toyota aims for 15 percent of India's car market by 2015.