Toyota denies plan for USD6k cars in India
TOKYO: Toyota on Thursday (24 May 2012) denied a press report that it was to begin selling cars in India priced at around US$6,000 as the Japanese auto giant looks to boost its share of the country's growing affordable car market.
"There are no such plans," a Toyota spokesman said after the Asahi Shimbun report.
The Asahi said the company would create a new brand for the low-price vehicle in a bid to avoid devaluing the Toyota name, the daily said, without naming sources, adding Toyota was eyeing a 2016 entry to the sector.
Japan's biggest automaker began selling its low-cost sedan Etios in India in 2010, but with a price tag of $10,000 it is still expensive compared with cars made by rivals such as Tata Motors, whose Nano sells for as little as $2,900.
Toyota has said it wants to achieve 50 percent of its worldwide vehicle sales in emerging markets from 2015 compared to 40 percent in 2010.
Source: AFP