Toyota India Sales Decline By 16 Per Cent In March 2018

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has seen marginal growth ever since the beginning of the year, but the company saw a decline in volumes for March 2018. The automaker sold 13,537 units last month (domestic and exports), a drop of 16 per cent in volumes, as compared to 14,432 units sold in March 2017. Toyota sold a total of 12,539 units in the domestic market last month, while 998 units of the Etios were exported. In comparison, 13,796 units were sold in the domestic market in March 2017, while 636 units of the Etios range were exported.

For the last quarter of the 2017-18 fiscal, between January and March 2018, Toyota India registered an overall growth of 3 per cent, as compared to the same period last year. Furthermore, Toyota stated that sales of the Fortuner grew by 83 per cent in FY2017-18, as compared to the previous financial year. Similarly, the Toyota Corolla Altis saw sales grow by 16 per cent during the previous fiscal, over FY2016-17.

(Bookings for the Toyota Yaris commence this month)

Commenting on the sales performance, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Deputy Managing Director, N. Raja said, "We are happy to have registered a positive growth of 3 per cent in the first quarter as compared to Jan - March 2017. The Yaris bookings for customer will open from April and we expect customers will highly appreciate the product. Our dealerships are already getting good number of customer enquiries on Yaris."

Toyota India is now working towards introducing a mass market offering with the Yaris sedan. The model was revealed in India in February this year and will take on the Honda City, Maruti Suzuki Ciaz, Hyundai Verna and the likes. Bookings for the Toyota Yaris commence this month, while the launch is expected sometime in May this year. The Yaris will go on sale with a 1.5-litre petrol engine at the time of launch, mated to both manual and automatic transmission options.