TOYOTA INDIA PUTS DAIHATSU PLANS ON THE BACK BURNER

Suzuki's Indian arm, Maruti Suzuki commands a near 50 per cent of the car market share. It has small cars like the Maruti Alto 800, K10, Wagon R, Celerio, Ignis, Baleno, Swift, Dzire and Vitara Brezza in the sub-4m segment - a major sales driver. In the top 10 best selling cars each month, at least four Maruti vehicles are the top grossers. Toyota in the meanwhile has only the Kiva in the small car segment. Toyota India, however, is the segment leader with respect to sales of the Innova Crysta as well as the Fortuner. The Toyota Etios largely caters to the Ola and Uber taxi segments now, leaving a wide gap for a small car portfolio to fit in. It is expected that the collaboration with Suzuki should help fill this void and boost Toyota India's market share to at least 10 per cent. Daihatsu could have been the right candidate, however, the cost of getting in new platforms could be the hindrance plus pricing the models to be really competitive could be another part.

Fukui also mentioned that the company indeed is not averse to exploring smaller versions of the Toyota Fortuner and the Innova Crysta. He however refused to comment on the launch of the Toyota Rush in India. The Toyota Hilux pickup however isn't coming to India anytime soon. The success of the Isuzu D-Max doesn't seem to have buoyed the pickup market in India.

Toyota India recently stopped making the Camry hybrid citing the huge taxation imposed on the car. Sales went down by 73 per cent when compared with last year. The price of the Camry, on-road now stands at Rs 43 lakh, a figure at which customers could opt for premium brands like Mercedes-Benz, Audi or BMW. Toyota India, however, refused to comment on this.