Toyota had recently announced that it will unveil its small car codenamed as “Entry Family Car” at the Delhi Auto Expo. It has christened the new car as Toyota Etios, meaning ‘the origin of’. The car will be placed in the most competing small car segment and will be priced around Rs. 4.5 lakh or $10,000. The car will compete with the popular small car of India – Maruti Swift. Toyota will introduce both notchback and hatchback models at the Delhi Auto Expo. Toyota intends to maintain the quality of its cars, thus it will introduce its notchback model first. The hatchback model, which will sell in volumes, will come later.
Toyota has squeezed out costs wherever possible to make it price-competitive in India and has made it stand at par with Maruti Swift. Etios will be come with two engine options - a 1.4-liter diesel that powers the Yaris and a 1.2- or 1.3-liter gasoline unit. Toyota also has 1.3L petrol engine (K3 series) but has not made it clear whether it will be downsized to 1.2L to meet the small car regulation norms to save on excise duty.
India will be the lead plant in the world for the Etios, followed by Brazil, thus further consolidating India as a global hub for small cars. The new Entry Family concept car is expected to be 90 percent same to the production version that will be on sale end of 2010.
Source: http://www.autocarindia.com/news/scoop-etios-toyota%E2%80%99s-new-small-car
