Daihatsu Begins Work on Toyota Small Car for India, Brazil, Indonesia

Toyota is very keen to once again revive its efforts to capture a larger share of the Indian car market. And it knows that doing so will mean a larger dent in the small car space than what its Etios family has been able to achieve so far. We've already told you that Toyota is keen to use small-car-specialist Daihatsu, which recently became a 100% Toyota Motor subsidiary, to help develop new models to help that cause.

NDTV has now learnt that this project has now been set in motion. There is a team in place too which is looking at the feasibility of introducing existing models into the market. While doing so, it is also looking at working on new platforms but also getting an understanding if the existing ones can be adopted. The objective of this exercise is to introduce 3-4 body styles.

New Generation Toyota Fortuner

In a bid to achieve higher sales in India, Toyota will follow a 3-pronged strategy. The niche-end of that will be the plan to bring Lexus to India. But the other two parts of it is what interests us more. This will mean attacking the volumes segments at both the premium and mass ends of the market. At the premium end will be the new generation of the Fortuner that arrives next year, and the new Innova Crysta which will be launched in about 6 weeks from now. The mass end market is where the Daihatsu brand will come into play and it'll be interesting to see what Toyota brings to the table.