The bestselling Innova came as a new offering to India from the Japanese car major Toyota in place of the yesteryear’s popular Qualis. The segment leading Toyota Innova was launched in the Indian terrain back in the year 2005 as a replacement of the Qualis.
The average monthly sale of the Toyota Innova is around 5,000 units even during a time when the Indian car market has been on the decline for quite a long period. The leading automotive company, Toyota is also very confident about the continued sales success of the Innova in India. The Dy. Managing Director and COO of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Mr. Sandeep Singh says that the Toyota Innova will be holding its leading position even in the immensely competitive market conditions in India.
Toyota is not basing this confidence only on the new facelift Innova that was launched on 5th of this month. Singh is very pleased that the Innova’s sales forms around 40 percent of the total sales at Toyota’s new dealerships in the smaller Indian cities and towns, that is referred as Bharat.
Toyota’s dealership expansion was meant to make the Etios and Liva vehicles reach more consumers across the country. The Toyota cars that have a range of around Rs 5 to 8 lakhs are specially targeted to the consumers at the Bharat dealerships. However, the company is pleasantly surprised to find out that the more expensive Innova that has a price range of Rs. 12 to 15 lakh remains the biggest volume drawer in some of these outlets.
Singh says that this proves that the brand Innova has a strong connection with the Indian customers. Toyota targets corporate and large Indian families as the primary customers for the Innova, however the vehicle finds considerable popularity in the cab segment. Interestingly, this was the primary reason behind the replacement of the Qualis that was a very popular MPV.
Toyota had hoped that the taxi segment association would change with the launch of Innova, but it is also very much favored by the fleet operators. This is because the demands in the fleet segment have changed with time and premium cabs are in vogue. As a result the rather low perception of the taxi segment has been replaced by the current up-class association with the advent of the premium city cabs that also finds the Toyota Etios doing the rounds as a cab in prominent Indian cities.
The market competition in the Indian MPV segment is hugely increasing. However, Singh clearly states that the premium and classy Innova has no intentions of compromising on anything in order to reduce its price tag to compete in the market. He says that Innova is a class in itself and the customers are really happy and loyal to the brand.
The performance of the Innova is expected to boost a great deal in this festive season with the launch of the refreshed model that comes with a new exterior looks and loads of added features with a new top-end variant as well.
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I am into the auto blogs field for quite a long time. Living my passion of reviewing cars.
Tagged: Toyota Cars India, Toyota Innova, Toyota Kirloskar Motor
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