Japanese auto giant Toyota’s drive to meet surging demand in India saw the carmaker announce a $400 million investment in a third manufacturing facility in the country on Tuesday.
The new plant, which will create 2,000 new jobs and produce over 100,000 units annually, would take Toyota’s overall capacity there to 410,000 units per annum.
The plant would also be the world’s largest automaker’s first capacity expansion in over a decade.
Reuters in September was the first to report Toyota’s plans for setting up a third plant in the southern state of Karnataka, where it already has two plants.
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“Toyota continues to be highly positive on the Indian market,” Masakazu Yoshimura, MD and CEO of local unit Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said in a statement.
The expansion offers the potential to grow in the supplier ecosystem further, Yoshimura added.
The company’s India sales have soared due to a global partnership with Suzuki Motor, under which the two Japanese car makers take some vehicles initially developed by their Indian partner Maruti, then tweak and sell under their brands to fill out their product line-up.
About two-thirds of Toyota’s current production capacity is used by Maruti Suzuki to build vehicles for both car makers as part of their partnership.
The expansion comes when Toyota has been facing slow growth in markets like Europe and North America and competition from Chinese players in Southeast Asia.
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara
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