With global carmakers unveiling their small car dreams, small cars ruled the first day of the Auto Expo.

However, Japanese, European and American automakers are looking to make India the small car hub in the next few years while the curtains finally came off some of the most expected small cars.

Meanwhile, first was Toyota that unveiled Etios, a car which the Japanese carmaker hopes to make and export from India.

In order to start manufacturing its small car from this year, Toyota already put in Rs 3200 crore investment and will be churning out 70,000 of them every year initially.

Honda is also ready with its small car and they have already declared the price point they are targeting, that is, below Rs 5 lakh.

Moreover, with more than 70% of the Indian car market ruled by small cars it was obvious that global majors such as Toyota, Honda and others will jump onto the bandwagon.

On the other hand, although the Toyotas may be calling the small car a concept vehicle, they are likely to hit the Indian roads very soon while Volkswagen unveiled its long running warhorse Polo.

Bookings for this car will be open from March, but Volkswagoe is yet to decide how to position Polo vis-a-vis Fabia, which is in the same segment and is produced by Skoda.

On the other hand, Maruti is not unveiling any small car but it did unveil a mini-MPV-R3.R3 is multi purpose vehicle, which will be launched only if there is anoptimistic response.

However, on January 5, 2010, the 10th Auto Expo flagged off at the Pragati Maidan exposition grounds, attracting over 2,100 participants from 30 countries in a growing testimony to India's emergence as a major market and hub for the global automobile industry.

The Indian automotive industry has a turnover of more than $18 billion (Rs.90,000 crore) today and expects to gain significantly through new tie-ups, partnerships and marketing initiatives during Auto Expo.

Meanwhile, the organizers said the expo was witnessing the largest-ever overseas participation with contingents from Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Taiwan and Britain.

The Auto Expo is a biennial trade fair of automobile and auto component manufacturers organized jointly by the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM); it is the Asia's only and the largest Complete Automotive Show.