"The proposed family car, to be launched in January 2000, would be priced very competitively and be affordable to the Indian public," Toyota Vice President, Fujio Cho said here today.

Over $ 170 million have been spent so far on the joint venture project between Toyota Corporation and Kirloskar group of India, Toyota director, Hideaki Otaka told newsmen. The company is studying the existing small car models for launching a suitable model in India keeping in mind the Indian road conditions, he said.

Toyota-Kirloskar Motors vice president Vikram Kirloskar said about Rs 600 crore has been spent on the assembly line plant for producing the big car and Rs 200 crore in the four other companies which will supply auto components to the company.

Though the plant would have an annualcapacity to produce 50,000 units, it plans to sell 20,000 cars in the first year of its commercial operation. Initial indigenisation level would be 50 per cent which would be increased progressively, company sources said.

Company is also developing a Toyota techno park in Bangalore where identified vendors will set up their ancillary units to ensure close cooperation with the parent plant, sources said. The company has not yet decided on the price of the vehicle which would be fixed only after receiving the ongoing market survey report.

However, the car would be priced "very competitively" as the company was aware about the price sensitive Indian market. The company plans to sell 20,000 units in the first year of its commercial operation, Cho said after inaugurating the Toyota pavilion at the India Engineering Trade Fair (IETF'99) exhibition here.

Toyota Corp has a joint venture arrangement with Kirloskar group to manufacture the proposed car and other models in future, he added. "In terms ofproduction, we intend to join forces with more than 60 industry Indian parts manufacturers to achieve our goal of 70 per cent local contents," he said. Toyota is also planning to develop an exclusive dealer network comprising 25 dealers in 22 major cities of the country, company sources said.

Cho said the Bangalore unit was a full-fledged production project in the country and added Toyota was prepared to back the plant with all the resources and know-how accumulated in the past 60 years. "Our intention in the project is not to succeed only as a foreign private sector auto company. We want to introduce Toyota's entire global expertise here," he said.

A complete support system will be established in India based on the Toyota production system that the company was developing worldwide, sources said.