Toyota, Honda to unveil 6 cars to challenge Maruti turf

Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and other carmakers will unveil at least six vehicles this

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week in India challenging Suzuki Motor, which controls half of the country's market.

There will be more choices and some of Suzuki's market share will be eaten up, said Puneet Gupta, a New Delhi-based analyst at consultant CSM Worldwide. Maruti, the Indian unit of Hamamatsu, Japan-based Suzuki, may lose up to 5 percentage points in the next two years, he said.

The carmakers will unveil the models at the Delhi auto show to attract India s 50 million middle-class consumers.

Ford Motor, General Motors and Volkswagen are all building plants and introducing new cars in India, the world's second-fastest growing major economy, while demand slumps in the US and Europe.

Surging sales in India and China -- set to dislodge the US as the world s biggest automobile market when 2009 numbers are tallied later this month -contrast with factory closures and job losses in the US and Europe. Suzuki will maintain its market share by introducing cars and expanding its sales network, said Hideki Taguchi, a company spokesman.

We are aware that India now isn't in a situation where we can be the sole winner, Taguchi said. But this doesn't mean that we will give up. India is Suzuki s biggest market, accounting for about 42 per cent of its global sales.

India is one of the few markets that continues to grow amid the global recession, said Jnaneswar Sen, vice-president of Honda India. Industry-wide car sales may double to 3 million units annually by 2015, according to the government.

Some 1.8 million visitors are expected at the biennial Auto Expo 2010 starting in Delhi Tuesday, said the Siam.

Honda will hold a worldpremiere of a compact vehicle at the show, choosing India for the concept vehicle ahead of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit later this month.

For Suzuki, the influx of competition is similar to what the carmaker faced is 1998, when Hyundai Motor, Daewoo Motor and Tata Motors all unveiled hatchbacks.

Competition is getting fiercer as Toyota and other carmakers are entering India in a big way, said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments in Tokyo.