Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Ltd. (TKM) announced the export of the Toyota Etios series to South Africa. The first consignment of 247 units has already been dispatched from Ennore Port near Chennai. The export model of the Etios will be built on the same platform as the Etios and the Etios Liva. However, they will be customised to suit local requirements and only the petrol variants will be exported. The Etios series is currently manufactured in Toyota’s plant on the outskirts of Bangalore and export models will be manufactured here as well.

Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director, TKM said, “Toyota Kirloskar Motor has a come a long way since its inception in India and with the export of the Etios, we have been successful in completing our vision of making Toyota’s India operations a strategic hub for both the domestic and global market.”

Vicente Socco, executive vice president, Toyota Motor Asia Pacific commented, “The start of the export operations at TKM denotes the growing role of TKM in Toyota’s global operations. India has always been a very important market for us and it is further reiterated with the advent of the Etios export to South Africa.”