Think of a car designed especially for India and I bet that most of you (including myself) will imagine a small el-cheapo hatchback designed to be as cheap to buy and run as possible so that people are able to upgrade to covered four wheeler transportation from their usual bikes.

And so when Toyota announced that they would be unveiling a “for India” compact at the Delhi expo this month, I had imagined that sort of car. After all, Toyota has Daihatsu K-car expertise at their disposal. Boy was I wrong! Just watch the video above, which teases the Indian-bound concept that has been named the Toyota Etios, and you’ll see what I mean. In case you were wondering, the word Etios means ‘the origin of’.

Although Indian streets are full of small Maruti Suzuki hatchbacks, the demand for sedans there are also sufficient enough not to ignore. Which is Suzuki took the trouble to sedan a sedan version of the Swift. The Toyota Etios compact concept car is in fact a small sedan, and since the video says this car is going to be available globally as well, we could potentially be looking at the next generation Toyota Vios replacement, or at least a car that shares a common platform and engine range with a future Vios. Or this could be a sedan that slots in under the Vios. We will know once we find out what the size of this car is exactly.