TKM eyes Vehicle finance arm in India

Hyderabad: Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is looking at establishing a vehicle finance arm in India, according to company's managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa.

“We have just started a feasibility study and are yet to formalise our plans,” he told mediapersons, while declining to give any time line for it.

Stating that there was no change in TKM’s investment commitments for India on account of the liquidity crisis, he said the company’s second plant at Bangalore was under way and would be completed according to the schedule by 2010.

“The Rs 3,200-crore second plant will be used to manufacture passenger vehicles and the proposed small car, which will be rolled out in 2010,” he added.

The new plant, coming up near TKM’s existing 600,000 units per year capacity facility in Bangalore, will have a capacity of 100,000 units a year, which can be scaled up to another 100,000, Nakagawa said.

He said despite the slowdown, the company has been witnessing a growth in its market share in the multi-utility vehicle (MPV) segment in the country.

“TKM had already garnered a 37 per cent market share in the MPV segment till date this year, as against 35 per cent for the whole of last year,' he said. The MPV market in the country stood at 130,000 units last year, while it has touched 120,000 units so far this year.

TKM launched Express Maintenance (EM) a one-hour periodic maintenance service for all Toyota models in Hyderabad. “Since its launch in Mumbai in 2005, we have implemented EM at 14 dealerships across the country. Our idea is to launch this at all the 66 dealerships by the end of 2009. From 2010, all the existing and newly opened dealerships will offer EM service,” Nakagawa said.