Toyota Kirloskar Motor to expand plant output by 20-30%, add third shift from May 2023

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), which produced 166,690 cars and SUVs and sold 173,245 units in FY2023, is to expand its manufacturing plant output by a minimum of 20-30 percent. Production is likely to double to over 320,000 units in the current financial year, making it the highest ever output for the company.

Autocar Professional learns the company, which currently has an order book of over 120,000 units, its highest ever to date since its market entry in 1997, is likely to deliver its highest ever annual output and sales in FY2024.

Starting from the first week of May, TKM will be adding a third shift at its Bidadi factory on the outskirts of Bengaluru. This will help increase its Innova, Fortuner and Hycross production capacity from 380 units per day to 510 units per day and augment its cumulative capacity in India from 320,000 to 400,000 units per annum, according to people in the know.

With the waiting period ranging from three months to 18 months in some cases, the company was recently compelled to halt bookings for the top-end variant of the new Innova HyCross. End-2022 had also seen the company stop taking bookings for the Innova Crysta, which was reintroduced in February 2023.

TKM’s expansion of production is taking place in the face of slowing growth as a result of sustained demand for all its models with the Innova family (Crysta and HyCross) for which cumulative bookings have are between 60,000 to 70,000 units at end-March 2023.

If not for the shortage of chips, the company would have added the third shift earlier to cater to the high demand. It is learnt that Toyota had earlier planned to stop production of the Innova Crysta but due to shortage of semiconductor chips for the new Innova HyCross, it decided to continue the model till the end of FY2024. Sources say, given the strong market traction for the model, TKM is now likely to continue selling the Innova Crysta for another additional year till FY2025.

The expansion in capacity is also necessitated by a strong order book of Maruti Suzuki’s Grand Vitara, which is being produced at the Bidadi factory. At the end of FY2023, Maruti Suzuki had a booking of 140,000 units for the midsize SUV which has a waiting period of 3-6 months.

An email sent to Toyota Kirloskar to confirm the production expansion did not elicit any response till the time of publishing this report.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor ended FY2023 with sales of 173,245 units and a passenger vehicle market share of 4.45%, which has moved up by 40 basis points. It was the sole Japanese brand to witness an increase in market share at a time when there is an increased acceptance for homegrown OEMs’ cars and SUVs from Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra.

Thanks to its global alliance with Suzuki, Toyota has been able to expand the addressable market. The maker of the Corolla and Camry has banked on Maruti’s model – Baleno – which is sold as the Glanza to address the Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh market. Toyota sold over 40,000 units of the Glanza hatchback in FY2023.

This year, TKM is likely to get an SUV based on the Maruti Suzuki Fronx and Ertiga MPV, which will help further expand its vehicle portfolio while offering offer the Innova HyCross to Maruti Suzuki in return.