Toyota sees India Etios annual sales at 70,000

New Delhi, Jan 5 (ANI): Toyota Motor Co expects annual sales of 70,000 units of its new strategically important compact car 'Etios' in India as it looks to ramp up growth in the fast-growing market.

Talking to reporters here today, Hiroshi Nakagawa, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited, said: "We are going to start the production from end of the year 2010, this year. Then year 2011, first stage, we aim to do 70,000 annual basis thereafter...After Indian market we are going to export to other countries."

Toyota hopes to attain a sizeable market share in India in the shortest possible time with the introduction of Etios, as per Toyota officials.

Toyota will expand its Indian sales network to 150 dealers by the end of 2010 from the current 97.

Toyota said over 2,000 engineers in India and Japan worked for four years on the Etios. It did not specify a price range for the new model, which is expected to sell for well under 10,000 dollars.

Earlier, Toyota's Vice-Chairman Kazuo Okamoto said that India would play a pivotal role in the company's global expansion plans and this the time to strategically accelerate growth in India.

The Etios, code-named "EFC" for entry family car, is due to go on sale later this year. Toyota, which began producing cars in India in late 1999, is a minor player in Asia's third-biggest economy, producing just 51,133 cars in 2009. (ANI)