Toyota Says India Will be EV Parts Making Hub

The Climate Action group claimed that Toyota had shown 'significant resistance' to the transition to electric vehicles. File photo: AFP.

Toyota Motor Corp has announced it will expand its presence in India with plans to make electric powertrains and other parts used in electric vehicles to serve as a supply hub for EV parts domestically and for exports markets such as ASEAN and Japan, a senior company executive said.

The news comes hot on the heels of a recent announcement by its Indian joint venture companies, Toyota Kirloskar Motor and Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts, to invest some 41 billion rupees ($530 million) on facilities to produce electric vehicle parts in India’s southern Karnataka state.

“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 said.

The announcement comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is offering companies billions of dollars in incentives to build EVs and their parts locally.

The world’s biggest carmaker said in December it plans to invest $70 billion to electrify its automobiles by 2030, including developing battery EVs.

In India, however, Toyota is more focused on launching hybrid models first, Gulati said, adding this would address varying consumer needs and enable “a faster transition towards an electrified future.”

Building out the supply chain will help Toyota become competitive in terms of volume and price in India, Gulati said.

Toyota expects this to enable a “faster and smoother” shift for the Indian auto industry to electric-vehicle technology, he added.

Reuters, with editing by Neal McGrath

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Neal McGrath

Neal McGrath is a New York-based financial journalist. Neal started his career covering the Asia-Pacific region for the Economist Intelligence Unit, then joined Asian Business magazine. He's subsequently held a variety of editorial positions covering business, economics, finance and sustainability. Neal has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany and the US.