Toyota says India plant is its greenest

Toyota's Bidadi plant near India's software hub of Bengaluru has been declared the greenest among 56 plants run globally by the Japanese company. At least 56 million units of energy, or 68 per cent of the total 83 million needed every year by the India plant (situated in the small industrial town of Bidadi on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway), come from renewable sources such as solar and wind energy, which are either generated in-house or purchased from an external source. Toyota's factory in northern France is at a distant second, deriving 35 per cent of its energy needs from green sources. The Bidadi factory is now a “model plant” for the company's operations worldwide, said Raju B. Ketkale, Senior Vice-president and director of product design and development, purchases and quality assurance, at Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. Toyota Kirloskar now plans to add 7MW of capacity by the end of 2020, which would take the share of renewable energy to 80 per cent. Globally, Toyota has adopted a so-called Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050, which aims to cut environmental impact in all vehicle-related activities to zero by 2050.