[TusharK]

According to a media report, Toyota is looking to localise its electric and hybrid technologies in India.



According to a media report, Toyota is looking to localise its electric and hybrid technologies in India.

Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales & Service - Toyota Kirloskar Motor has stated that if these technologies are localised, the company could offer electric, mild-hybrid, plug-in hybrid (PHEV) or fuel cell vehicles at competitive prices. We could see more hybrid vehicles on Indian roads in around 2 years' time. Toyota has already partnered with Suzuki and Denso to set up a battery plant in Gujarat.

He added that each manufacturer is looking at ways to meet upcoming CAFE (corporate average fuel efficiency) norms. Hybrids would be the key as they have a clear advantage over traditional combustion engines in terms of fuel efficiency and emissions.

Toyota's current model line-up in India includes two hybrids - Camry and Vellfire. Both vehicles are priced high.

Source

Link to Team-BHP News

[srishiva]

I dont understand what localising technology means here. You can always localise the production process. Technology can be developed anywhere and used anywhere.

I hope they dont want to water down the technology so that it can be manufactured here cheaply. Or to create alternative inexpensive components which could also dilute the effectiveness and efficiency.

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by TusharK

We could see more hybrid vehicles on Indian roads in around 2 years' time.

We will see more full-electric vehicles on Indian roads in 2 years than hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles combined.

Toyota volumes are already very low in India. If they don't start prepare for full-electric future (with proper localization as they are doing in China), their market share will be even lower in 2-3 years. They will be not be able to rebadge Marutis when that happens as Suzuki itself doesn't have proper EV roadmap.

[y448]

I am keenly looking forward to seeing proper hybrid and plugin hybrid cars in lower affordable segments. I think this is more suited to us as my belief is that we are not yet ready to move to EVs in large scale due to lack of clean electricity (more than half the production is from using coal) and charging infrastructure (range anxiety which this brings).

A plugin hybrid gives you best of both worlds; fully electric mode for your daily/short city runs and petrol engine for long drives without worries about availability of charging stations.

I always wondered why it has not come to India yet! It could be because internationally the technology is available for bigger capacity engines/cars and it will take considerable R&D cost to successfully integrate this into smaller cars which form the volume segments in our market, something similar to why we did not have many diesel automatics below 10 lakhs. May be this effort from Toyota and Suzuki might make it happen

[landcruiser123]

I'm hoping we get the proper hybrids which have a good EV only range to minimize running the engine in normal city driving.

Originally Posted by srishiva

I dont understand what localising technology means here. You can always localise the production process. Technology can be developed anywhere and used anywhere.

The Toyota hybrids sold in the US (Prius, Corolla, Camry, Avalon, Highlander) are large cars in the Indian context. They need to localize the technology to scale down for smaller models like the Yaris and other Suzuki platforms.

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

We will see more full-electric vehicles on Indian roads in 2 years than hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles combined.

...They will be not be able to rebadge Marutis when that happens as Suzuki itself doesn't have proper EV roadmap.

Hybrids are going to be more useful Indian context. I think Toyota will share these power-trains with Suzuki.

[ramki.grandhi]

Even if they localize i dont think Toyota vehicles will become any affordable. I mean, look at innova, it costs close to 25 to 30 lacs(~40k USD) in bangalore on road. For this much money, in a country like USA...they give much better car.

Agreed, innova is most reliable and comfortable car in india, but those prices are atrocious. May be because of their exports, indians will get more jobs.

[sandeepmohan]

I see this as a win for us and Toyota. It is rare for them to manufacture some of their bigger technologies or products outside Japan. Their cars are not exactly flying off shelves so might as well use the plant to manufacture or produce Hybrid drive trains. It is quite likely that most of it will be exported. This is a company that pioneered the concept of Hybrids and they still have good demand in developed parts of the world.

[fhdowntheline]

I think there should be a case for a hybrid Innova petrol model which green conscious consumers can look at, even if it still costs between 25-30 lac. The platform is large enough to accomodate a hybrid+ petrol engine of say 2.0 litres , enough to keep it chugging along .

[GTO]

Originally Posted by srishiva

I dont understand what localising technology means here. You can always localise the production process. Technology can be developed anywhere and used anywhere.

Well said. And that's what Toyota-Maruti are going to do with hybrid tech. It's already very mature and Toyota is the best at it. Now it's a matter of localising the parts & making it affordable.

Hybrids have massive potential in India and Toyota-Maruti know it. It can overnight double the FE of a Maruti Dzire to 30 kmpl. Only problem is how turtle-slow Toyota India is (they took 5 years to get the 1st-gen Fortuner here!).

[sv97]

But before localising the technology what they should do is some amount of lobbying to get hybrids taxed in the lower bracket rather than 43% bracket.
As that just makes it an unviable proposition for small and medium sized cars as the price difference is going to be a lot between conventional and hybrid models.

And considering Toyota and Maruti, both being extremely good at lobbying it won't be surprising if the Hybrid taxes are lowered in the near future before they eventually launch these products.

[DicKy]

Reminds me of the Amla fruit saying.
"Bitter in short term, sweet in long term."

If they had continued receiving subsidies, they would have kept on importing the battery/motor/control unit from Japan or even Thailand.

So now, took matter into their own hands and starting to localise the whole system
Win-win.
Though I do pray TKM doesn't learn some nasty stuff from MSIL.

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

We will see more full-electric vehicles on Indian roads in 2 years than hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles combined.

True. In the near future.
But over a course of two years and more, hybrids would me more in number than pure EVs.

I get the appeal of EVs, in fact excited about the EV version of the HBX!!!
EV would be perfect for the kind of duty that our WagonR has.

But for the vast majority of car buyers, even if EV suffices their needs, would fail miserably in their wants.

Proper full hybrids would be the perfect fit.
If a fat ass Camry can give 16+ kmpl in the city, wonder how much would a smaller car give?

Really an oxymoron, when hybrids are popular in USA, and diesels were popular in Europe/India. When our traffic conditions are tailor made for hybrids

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by DicKy

True. In the near future.
But over a course of two years and more, hybrids would me more in number than pure EVs.

Its about availability of the actual products at relatively affordable prices. Hybrid technology is available for more than 2 decades. How many models are available in India? How many plu-in hybrids out of those are available in the country?

If you believe that with the partnership of Toyota, Suzuki will bring in hybrids to India, do you think they will price it well? A Baleno hybrid with 30 kmpl mileage will be priced on par, if not more with Altroz EV. Baleno plug-in hybrid will definitely be priced double that of regular petrol Baleno.

If you follow the companies and their product lineups, most of them are moving directly to EVs rather than hybrids. Only Euroepan luxury car makers like Mercedes, BMW, Volvo are bringing plug-in hybrids to meet the emission regulations.

VW group is not developing any plug-in hybrids but they will release 70 full-electric models in next 3-4 years across their brands. Its same with Hyundai/Kia, PSA group.

Really an oxymoron, when hybrids are popular in USA, and diesels were popular in Europe/India. When our traffic conditions are tailor made for hybrids

Again can't blame the people if automakers don't bring the true hybrid models to the country. I am glad that govt stopped subsidies for fake hybrids from Maruti.

[sv97]

Originally Posted by sv97

But before localising the technology what they should do is some amount of lobbying to get hybrids taxed in the lower bracket rather than 43% bracket.
As that just makes it an unviable proposition for small and medium sized cars as the price difference is going to be a lot between conventional and hybrid models.

And considering Toyota and Maruti, both being extremely good at lobbying it won't be surprising if the Hybrid taxes are lowered in the near future before they eventually launch these products.

Any comments on this guys?