The Toyota Etios

The largest car maker of 2009, Toyota Motor Corporation, has too joined the bandwagon to develop small cars.

Toyota's Indian arm Toyota Kirloskar Motors had showcased its concept small car Etios at the 2010 Delhi Auto Expo. The word 'Etios' is derived from the Greek word 'Ethos' meaning 'original essence'. The name aptly suits the concept because as it is indeed a revisit of Toyota's car making ethos with the new upcoming car. The Etios is created for the A2 Plus segment for the markets in India as well as for Russia and South America.

Toyota took more than two years to study the Indian driver and the country's roads before developing its small car. The Etios Concept is built by Japanese engineers with inputs from the domestic market. Toyota has been in India for about a decade and has made a niche for itself. And yet, there's one segment that has eluded it for the longest period - the B-segment affordable hatchback."Now the car giant is ready to venture in the small car segment and entry-level sedan segment.

Toyota has revealed that bringing in a small car and an entry-level sedan to India is very crucial at this point of time as the car maker is bidding for a bigger share in the domestic market. Toyota was also invited by Late Sanjay Gandhi to look into his "people's car" project. Ironically, just like Honda and Nissan, Toyota too was apathetic to the "people's car" project. And now, after thirty years, this Japanese car behemoth just like Honda and Nissan are reconsidering to foray into the small car segment of India. Honda had previewed its New Small Concept and Nissan is working on the Micra for India.

Coming to the design of the car, the interiors use harder moulded plastics and the dials are centrally mounted. There is sufficient space for storage and the single-piece seats with integrated headrests utter that Toyota is careful about the keeping the pricing at a competitive level. Toyota also saves cost by the use of a single wiper blade and air-conditioning knob which is borrowed from the Innova.

The tail lamps on both the hatchback and sedan do not intrude on boot space, while the body panels help keep costs lower. But, at the same time, Toyota also endows both the cars with chrome highlights on the grille, side-strips and wheels to ensure that these cars do not give up on the premium feel. Toyota will focus on heavy localisation levels to keep costs competitive.

Power for the two cars will come from two very different engines. The hatchback will be equipped with a 1.2-litre petrol engine that will derive a power of around 70 bhp and will be mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox. The sedan, on the other hand, will be driven a 1.5-litre petrol engine with over 100 bhp.

The two cars will be rolling out of Toyota's new plant that has a capacity of over 100,000 cars a year. The Etios sedan will roll out by October 2010 and the Etios compact car is expected in January 2011.