Japanese car manufacturer, Isuzu, has announced a massive entry plan into India and will eventually set up a full fledged manufacturing base here as well. Isuzu will initially launch a few products in India as completely built units imported from Thailand, to analyze the response as well as to study the Indian market. Then accordingly they will formulate a plan and build an assembly plant followed by a manufacturing unit to build vehicles for local as well as export purposes.
Isuzu has launched two dealerships, one in Hyderabad and one in Coimbatore. The company has launched 3 products initially. First is a light commercial vehicle, D-Max regular cab which is priced at Rs. 6.89 lakh. This is followed by a pick-up, crew cab, costing Rs. 8.10 lakh. The third product is the MU-7, which is priced at around Rs. 24.18 lakh. The Isuzu MU-7 competes against the likes of the Toyota Fortuner, Mitsubushi Pajero Sport, Mahindra Ssangyong Rexton, etc.
Isuzu will focus initially on South India and specifically the states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu before expending all over India and setting up a manufacturing plant. It is expected that the plant will be set up in Andhra Pradesh after setting up a strong local supplier network. The plant will be crucial for the company on a global level. Isuzu believes the automobile market in India is at the same stage as China was a decade ago but may grow faster than China to reach second place in the world.
Source – Business Line
