According to high ranking personnel of Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), India's passenger car market will see a slowdown in 2012 as compared to the last calendar year. Sandeep Singh, Deputy Managing Director - Marketing, Toyota India, said, "Last calendar year the passenger car market grew by 7% to touch 2.5 million units, but this year we expect the growth to slow down to 3-5%."
He believes that the slowdown will mainly be because of rise in cess levied by the central government in Union Budget 2012. Along with this, the increase in several taxes applied by state governments as well as the relatively high interest rates would also take its toll on sales. His thoughts have been echoed by senior officials of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL).
Presently, Toyota India is making efforts to lower the waiting period for the main vehicles in its line up, namely Innova, Fortuner, Etios and Etios Liva. Currently, buyers have to wait 2 to 3 months for Innova, 4 to 6 months for Fortuner, 2 to 3 weeks for Etios and Etios Liva.
The company has already begun exporting its latest offerings, the Etios entry level segment and Etios Liva hatchback, to South Africa. The foreign-bound models have been modified slightly in order to make them ideal for the concerned market. On the other hand, TKM is also finalising plans to hike production capacity, which currently stands at 2.1 lac units, by 1 lac units by 2013, at an investment of Rs. 898 crores.
Toyota is also set to begin local assembly of its mid-sized premium sedan Camry by July 2012. It will also bolster its dealership network this year to 225 outlets from the current 173 showrooms.
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