Toyota Etios will undergo trial production from September 2010 which is three months prior to its scheduled launch. Toyota will commence two rounds of trial production before the model is officially launched in December this year. Second trial production will begin in October 2010. According to the Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director (Commercial) Shekar Viswanathan, the cars produced during trial production will not go on sale but will run on trial tracks for quality and other checks. He also stated that these cars may be dismantled later on. He refused to divulge the number of units that will be produced during two rounds of trial production.
.JPG?q=75 "Toyota Etios")
.JPG?q=75 "Toyota Etios")
Toyota unveiled its small car model earlier in January 2010 at the Delhi Auto Expo. Over 2,000 engineers from Toyota's Indian and Japanese operations have been working on developing the model for the last four years. Toyota intends to introduce both hatchback and sedan variants of the model in 1.2L and 1.5L engines.
"We are looking at every possible alternative to launch Etios. Apart from diesel and petrol variants, we will study the market and demand for launching the car in other fuel options (LPG and CNG) and hybrid mode," Toyota Motor Asia Pacific President Mitsuhiro Sonoda had said. Toyota has invested Rs.3200 Cr. to set up its new manufacturing facility in Bangalore to roll out its first small car into the Indian market.
