Toyota, Suzuki eye cash for clunker policy

Japanese giant automakers Suzuki Motor Corp and Toyota Motor Corp will foray into the vehicle dismantling and recycling business in India through their joint venture called Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India Private Limited.

The equal joint venture between Maruti Suzuki, Suzuki’s Indian arm, and Toyota Tsusho India, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corp, will set up the first vehicle-dismantling unit in Noida with a capacity to handle 2,000 vehicles per month.

The joint venture will subsequently have similar scrapyards in different parts of the country.

The Wednesday announcement from the Japanese behemoths comes close on the heels of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways having started working on its policy for vehicle scrapping to reduce the number of old vehicles on Indian roads.

As per the government, an estimated 28 million end-of-life vehicles across categories will be ready to be scrapped by April 2020.

Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India, which will be headquartered in New Delhi, will set up the vehicle dismantling and recycling unit in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, in FY2021.

MSTI will procure and dismantle end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). The process will include complete solid and liquid waste management as per the Indian laws and globally approved quality & environment standards.

The facility in Noida will be the first unit by MSTI and the JV will add more such units across India.