Toyota Etios to Debut in India on December 1

Japanese carmaker Toyota will roll out the Etios on December 1 in Bangalore, India but it's still unclear whether the company is planning to market both the sedan and the hatchback. If we are to judge by the rumors, the carmaker will initially launch the hatchback, while the sedan will be released at a later date, probably next year. In addition, the Etios range will rely on gasoline engines, while diesel configurations will be introduced in the next few years.

Additionally, Toyota is also looking into ways to introduce other propulsion configurations, with several studies to be conducted in the future to determine if such an addition would be profitable or not.

"We are looking at every possible alternative to launch Etios. Apart from diesel and petrol variants, we will study the market and demand for launching the car in other fuel options (LPG and CNG) and hybrid mode," said the carmaker's Asia Pacific president Mitsuhiro Sonoda, earlier this year.

Along with the debut of the Etios, Toyota will also open the second Indian plant which will thus expand production capacity of the Corolla Altis, Innova, Fortuner and the aforementioned Etios.

“Construction costs as well as raw material prices have increased in the past few years due to the hike in petroleum prices, we remain committed to our investment in the Indian plant,” managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa said in July 2010. “We tried to control the cost by implementing ‘Kaizan’ and we have been successful to a great extent. The second plant will commence production on schedule in December 2010.”