Unabashed by the crisis that hit the company’s US operations, Toyota Kirloskar Motors(TKM), the Japanese carmaker’s Indian subsidiary, is bullish on doubling its sales in 2011 from an estimated 70,000 units this year on the back of its upcoming B segment car, the Etios. Etios will also be the first car that Toyota will export from its Indian operations.
According to sources, the company is replacing a faulty rubber gasket in about one lakh cars — manufactured before August 2009 and sold in domestic as well as overseas markets, to prevent any possible fuel leakage.
“Toyota had the perfect model for the 1980s and 1990s, but its approach now looks outdated,” said Stefan Lippert, a business professor at Temple University in Japan. “The concentration of decision-making at headquarters is one of the factors behind Toyota’s problems right now.”
The Italian magazine Quattroruote has since reported that the new system will use lithium batteries and an electric motor to cut the fuel requirements of the 599′s V12 by 35 percent.