Asia Bizz: Auto manufacturing giant Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd has plans to assemble its mid class luxury sedan Camry in India. The company revealed that it has chosen its Bangalore factory to assemble the sedan from the month of July, 2012.
The new Camry is expected to be rolled out in India and will be re-launched in the month of August with a revised price tag. Till now, the company was importing about 300 units of Camry very year from Japan and it is the only car in the segment which is completely imported.
Some of the competitors like Volkswagen Passat, Skoda Superb and Honda Accord are all assembled in India. Toyota had to bear a prohibitive effective duty of about 100% for importing a completely built-in unit, which doubled the price of the vehicle; and when it is imported as a completely knocked down condition and assembled in the country, the duty becomes half.
The company is currently investing Rs. 900 crores to expand the capacity of the Bidadi factory; the overall capacity of the factory would go up to 310,000 units by next year. Sandeep Singh, the deputy managing director of sales and marketing said that their plan is to start assembling the car in July and launch it in the month of August. Singh also revealed that it will be priced above Rs. 20 lakh.
