Japanese auto major to invest Rs. 1400 Cr & introduce small cars by 2010.

Toyoto motors corp will invest $350 million (about Rs. 1400 crore) for settings up a second plant in India as part of its plans to introduces a ‘strategic’ small cars in the country by 2010.

Ending months of speculation over the second plant, Toyota, which runs the Indian operation through a joint venture, with the Kirlosakar Group, has decided to set up the new plant at its existing location in Bangalore.
“We have decided to build the second in Bangalore at the site of the existing facility with the investments $350 million,” Toyota Kirlosakar Motor (TKM) deputy managing director K K Swamy said.

The new plant will have a production capacity of 1,00,000 units and will become operational by 2010, he added. The company’s current plant has a capacity of 63,000 units a year.
TKM has been scouting for a location for months and finally zeroed in on the existing location to drive synergies with the existing operations.
“From this plant, we will roll out a strategic new small car which is currently under development at our Japan R&D facility. The small will meet the broads needs of the Indian customers, ” Swamy said.
The new small car, which will have high localization level, is primarily aimed at the Indian market although some of it will be exported, he added.
Toyota had in the past declared that it would capture 10 percent of the Indian car market by 2010 and the new car is expected to play a key role in it.
Asked about the pricing and positioning of the small car, he said it would not be at the ‘Nano’ range nor it would be too expensive. “Currently, the product (small car) is under development and it is difficult to talk about pricing but we do have the excise duty benefits in our mind,” Swamy said

With 28 Guinness records in his kitty, S Ramesh Babu (52), claims to have the highest number of world records. On Sunday, his efforts to set three more world records were successful: Fastest skipping in one minute, and fastest Frisbee rally in one minute.

The third bids performed at the Seshadripuram School in Yelahnka, have been registered with the Guinness Book of World Records.
Prof Babu performed formed 270 skips in a minute, surpassing his earlier records of 240. He created a new record by manually winding 106.4 meters of thread in one minute at the rate of 6.38 km per hour. He also completed 39 frisbee rallies in one minute and 62 milliseconds.