Toyota launches Camry in India, goal 20 pct share

BANGALORE, India, Oct 19, 2002 Reuters reported that Japan's Toyota Motor Corp today launched sales of its imported Camry sedan in India, aiming to capture 20 to 25 percent of a small but growing luxury sedan market.

Company officials told a news conference in Bangalore they expected to sell about 1,000 units of the model in the first year after paying import and sundry duties of about 120 percent.

"Our target for annual sales is 1,000, and that means a market share of 20 to 25 percent," said Sachio Yamazaki, Managing Director of Toyota's Indian joint venture, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd, in which Japan's largest automaker holds 99 percent.

The launch of the 2,400cc engine Camry model comes ahead of the introduction of its 1,800cc Corolla sedan scheduled for the first quarter of 2003.

Priced at around 1.8 million rupees ($37,190), Camry's two variants will mainly compete with Ford's Mondeo model and Honda's Accord in the segment of cars priced at 1.5 million rupees and above, company officials said.

Toyota officials did not give longer term growth projections but said 350 to 400 cars were sold in the segment in September, up from 250 in the same month a year ago.

Toyota launched in India in January 2000 with its multi-purpose utility vehicle, Qualis, which has sold more than 69,000 units.

Qualis has a 28 percent share of the 120,000-strong annual Indian market for utility vehicles.

The Indian unit said last month it had begun posting monthly profits since June, and aimed to erase all accummulated losses by 2005/06.

Toyota says it has so far put more than $190 million in its 50,000-units a year Indian plant on the outskirts of the southern city of Bangalore and is also investing 3.6 billion rupees in two export-oriented auto part units, which are scheduled to go on stream in 2004.

But company officials said given the lower sales volume for a model like Camry, it makes more sense to import and sell it in India.