Toyota had all their products in their respective segments as segment leaders and that is when they shifted their focus on targeting the middle-class buyers.
The Japanese major recently announced their future plans and it has clearly stated that it is not going to launch any new products in India for the next 3 years and will be focusing on Etios and the Liva brands. Speaking in a press conference, Sandeep Singh, Deputy Marketing Director, said, “We have a different game plan. We will not come up with new models for next three years. We will focus on strengthening Etios and Liva“.
So if you were hoping to buy a sub-Liva car from Toyota due to speculations, well , you will have to either stretch your budget for Liva or let go the Toyota brand.
He also stated that the year on the whole was good for Toyota but they witnessed a slowdown in the last few months due to the economic slump. The company’s diesel models, known for being almost bulletproof are doing well despite the industrial slowdown. Innova and Fortuner continue to lead their respective segments by winning over competition by a wide margin. It was only in the petrol variants that there was a drop in sales. The diesels continue to hold their ground well.
Toyota registered a drop in sales but that was mainly due to the shutting down of their plant to ramp up the production from an annual capacity of 2,10,000 units to 3,10,000 units which is going to significantly bring down the waiting periods for the the bestselling Fortuner and Innova.
Toyota also planned on bringing in the Prius but feasibility studies did not point in its favour. He also stated that they were facing tough competition in the SUV segment due to new launches but the company had its own loyalists who were going to stay unperturbed by the oncoming new products.
Simply put, this means that Toyota would continue milking the Etios and Liva and we are all set to witness many variants in the coming times. How would this policy of Toyota work for them? Let’s wait for the time to decide.
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Source : India Today
Richie Rich
