Toyota to produce electric vehicle components in India: Details

Toyota Motor Corp plans to manufacture electric vehicle (EV) components in India to cater to demand from both domestic and overseas markets, making the country a manufacturing hub for EV parts. The company is looking at shipping EV parts from India to Japan and some ASEAN countries. The carmaker will start by producing e-drives or electric powertrain parts used by different electric vehicle types such as battery EVs, plug-in hybrids and other hybrid models.

Earlier this week, the company announced that it will invest 48 billion rupees ($621 million) in India to localise the supply chain for EVs, which is also a part of its broader 2050 carbon-neutrality goals. "The aspiration is to make India the manufacturing hub for cleaner technologies. This is about creating the building blocks," Vikram Gulati, executive vice president at Toyota Kirloskar Motor told Reuters.

The company's move coincides with the government's offering to companies of billions of dollars in incentives to build EVs and their parts locally. As for Toyota, the bulk of the investment in India will be made by Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP), a joint venture of Toyota Motor Corp, Aisin Seiki Co and Kirloskar Systems.

In India, Toyota is more focused on launching its hybrid models first, which it believes are better suited to the country's aim of reducing dependence on fossil fuels and carbon emissions, and a way to get people to adopt to EVs without dealing with range anxiety.

Gulati said this would also address varying consumer needs and enable "a faster transition towards an electrified future". Building out the supply chain early will help the company become competitive in terms of volume and price in the country. The carmaker expects this to enable a "faster and smoother" shift for the Indian auto industry to electric-vehicle technology, Gulati added.