Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the Indian venture of the Japanese auto giant, on Wednesday signed a deal with the Maharashtra government to “examine” setting up a greenfield manufacturing facility in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, earlier known as Aurangabad, with Rs 20,000 crore.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Masakazu Yoshimura were present at the event. “Under the project, 400,000 electric and hybrid cars are expected to be manufactured every year with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore, generating 8,000 direct jobs and indirect employment for 8,000. This project will revolutionise the automobile sector,” Shinde said.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis revealed that 850 acres have been allotted for the manufacturing facility at AURIC (Aurangabad Industrial City), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
This comes after South Korean major Hyundai Motors India, which is set to debut on the stock markets, acquired the Talegaon facility from General Motors and is expanding the brownfield plant.
TKM started operations in India in 1997 and began production in 1999. The company last year said that it will invest Rs 3,300 crore in Karnataka to set up a third plant — in Bidadi — near Bengaluru. This expansion shall increase TKM’s production capacity by 100,000 units annually, thus adding to the growth of the local ecosystem of suppliers and creation of over 2,000 direct jobs in Karnataka.
With this third plant expansion going mainstream in 2026, TKM’s annual production capacity in Bidadi is expected to be augmented to 442,000 units.
In Bidadi, it has an installed capacity of producing 342,000 vehicles a year and employs 6,000 people. In addition, the facility houses a base of over 200 suppliers.
Last year TKM started three-shift manufacturing in Bidadi to boost output by about 30 per cent and expanded its capacity by 32,000 units.
In FY24, TKM sold 263,512 units, its best ever sales, up 48 per cent from the 177,683 units in FY23.
The company had said in April that sport utility vehicles and multi-utility vehicles were the biggest contributors with models like the Innova Crysta, Innova HyCross, Fortuner, Legender, Urban Cruiser Hyryder, Hilux and LC300.
“Toyota Motor Corporation believes that India is well positioned to become a global manufacturing hub for cleaner and greener mobility solutions. This belief was reinforced with the recent regional restructuring which elevated India to play central role by being integrated into the Middle East, East Asia & Oceania Region and acting as the hub of the new ‘India, Middle East, East Asia & Oceania Region’,” Yoshimura said
Swapnesh Maru, deputy managing director, said the proposal for the greenfield plant continued the company’s commitment to advancing sustainable mobility in India.
In 2022, the Toyota group, which comprises Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP), had signed and announced their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Karnataka government to invest Rs 4,100 crore aimed at making deeper cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and enhance electrification.
First Published: Jul 31 2024 | 11:33 PM IST
