Toyota's Hino Motors to launch luxury bus in India

Hino Motors Corporation, a Toyota Group company, said on Monday it would launch luxury buses for Indian roads by December. The Indian arm, Hino Motors Sales India Pvt Ltd, has also set a target to sell 700-800 units of heavy trucks and buses before March 2010 and plans to double it by next year.

Speaking to reporters at Chennai after launching the company's dealership here in association with Kerala-based Popular Group, Amol J Sandil, executive vice-president, Hino Motors, said of the luxury buses: "In terms of price, it will match Volvo or it will be plus-Volvo."

Hino also launched two truck models, FM8J and FL8J, priced at around Rs 40 lakh, from the Hino 500 series, its fastest selling vehicles in the overseas market.

Sandit said the company would import the cabin and chassis in a semi-knocked down form from its Thai plant and assemble these at Hino's facility near Bhiwandi, near Mumbai. Asked whether the company would look at setting up a manufacturing facility, Sandil said, "We are currently studying (it) and it might take a minimum of at least three years to take a final decision."

The company had identified three partners for tippers and one partner for buses and was looking for more partners, he said. It had identified builders for the vehicle body, including Kailash Vahan, Pune, and JCBL.

He said the sales target was 700-800 vehicles by March 2010, to be doubled the following year. To support the target, the company is planning to add three more dealers at Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. Currently, it has four dealers.

The company is introducing its 500 Series Vehicles, including the FM Range for 6X4 applications and FL Range for 6X2 applications. And plans to launch 8X4 tippers, followed by tractors and trailers. Bodies for tippers, trucks, containerised vans, refrigerated trucks and buses are being assembled in India through building vendors and the company is searching for more vendors, he added.