The world's largest carmaker Toyota announced that it will cut December production by 30 % but the company's Rs. 3,200 crore investment plan in Bangalore will be "on track". 

 

The company, which operates in India through a joint venture with Kirloskar Group -- Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), said the slowdown in the auto market has forced it to revise its sales target in India for this year. 

 

The company, which produced 2,886 units in November, has decided to cut its production in the current month due to slowdown in the domestic automart. 

 

"Everywhere else in the world, Toyota has put on hold all investments for expansions, except India", said TKM Managing Director Hiroshi Nakagawa . 

 

Nakagawa added, "We will be producing 30 per cent less in December due to falling sales. We will decide about the future productions for January and February depending on the market condition for this month."  

 

He said the company has reworked the sales target for this year on basis of falling sales. "Our latest challenge is to reach last year's sales volume," Nakagawa said. 

 

TKM had announced a sales target of 60,000 units for 2008. It had sold 54,181 cars in 2007 in the Indian market. Toyota also plans to launch the CNG version of its utility vehicle 'Innova'. 

 

The company faced a fall of 48.55 per cent in sales in November this year at 2,087 units comparing with 4,056 units in the same month last year.

 

TKM Deputy Managing Director Sandeep Singh said, "Currently, we are conducting the trial run of CNG 'Innova'. We are hopeful of commercially launching the vehicle by the end of January, 2009."