The TKM veteran, in a chat with ET, said his company had been adopting technologies that help cut down on emission. The company always pursued pathways that led to the best results, and adoption of a single technology would not achieve that, he said.
“In a country as diverse as India, there is no one single best technology to achieve our objectives,” the Dy MD said, adding that they would continue to work on a multi-pronged approach for the Indian market. Hybrid vehicles and blended fuels came close to meeting these goals. “Today, energy scarcity and security are one of the biggest challenges. Any technology that will bring down carbon footprint or use of fossil fuel would be our priority.”
TKM, which has had a successful ride in the Indian automobile market for 25 years, is preparing for its next leg of journey with a blistering pace of expansion in Karnataka and Maharashtra. The Japanese automaker, which landed in Bengaluru in 1997 in partnership with the late Vikram Kirloskar and introduced its first product Qualis three years later, is setting up its third plant at Bidadi on Bengaluru’s outskirts at an investment of INR 3300 crore.
The company, which has exported 10,000 units from its Bidadi plant in the first half of calendar 2024, is aiming to take its annual production capacity to 4.42 lakh a year in two years. The management, recently, signed up with Maharashtra, proposing to build a modern plant with a focus on green technology.
TKM would introduce suitable models at appropriate times based on customer preferences and infrastructure readiness, Maru said, while adding that Toyota’s hybrid models had been quite popular.
Hydrogen, he added, was globally growing by leaps and bounds and held a lot of promise as a potential fuel. Post 2030, hydrogen will be an important source of fuel, he said, adding the sector in India was still some distance away from its commercial adoption.
TKM, he said, had tied up with International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) to understand use of hydrogen in the Indian climatic conditions.
The automobile sector, the Dy MD said, was undergoing a once in a lifetime change, and they were collectively trying to figure out the future of mobility as no one is sure of a landing point. Toyota, for instance, has nurtured a global alliance with Suzuki, leveraging on each other’s strengths and synergies to offer products that meet their shared goals. “On ground, however, we compete with each other.”
On localization efforts, Maru said about 90% of components that they use were now being locally made as the company had been pursuing a localization roadmap to build on local competence and cut costs.
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