Toyota Kirloskar Motors has managed to bag more than 7000 bookings for the Etios in the first week of its launch. The pan-India bookings of the made-for-India saloon had commenced on December 1, 2010.
Reacting to the overwhelming response to the Etios, Toyota is planning to boost its dealership network in the country along with ramping up the production volume of the saloon. At present, Toyota has around 120 dealerships across the nation and this number is poised to escalate to 150 dealerships by the end of December 2010. Toyota had 97 dealerships in the year 2009.
Toyota’s new plant in Bangalore, where the Etios is manufactured, currently produces close to 2000 units per month. Come April 2011, this number will be increased to 3000 units, followed by a major ramp-up in volumes in the month of June-July 2011. This will help the company bring down the waiting period which has already reached to four months.
At present, the localisation content in the Etios is around 70 percent. Rest of the content, including engine and transmission is imported from Japan. Within the next two years the local content will be increased to 90 percent including transmission and engine which will be locally manufactured by mid-2012 and mid-2013 respectively. In order to keep costs under control, TKM has also expanded its local vendor base which has gone up to 106 vendors as compared to 60 vendors in 2009.
The Etios was launched earlier this month with a price tag of Rs 4.96lakh for the base J variant, rising up to Rs 6.82lakh for the top-end VX model. With pre-order bookings commenced already, customers can book the Etios saloon for an initial booking amount of Rs 50,000 through all 120 TKM dealerships across India.
The Etios hatchback, called the Etios Liva will go on sale in April 2011. For the year 2011, Toyota plans to collectively sell 70,000 units of the Etios saloon and the Liva.
Reacting to the overwhelming response to the Etios, Toyota is planning to boost its dealership network in the country along with ramping up the production volume of the saloon. At present, Toyota has around 120 dealerships across the nation and this number is poised to escalate to 150 dealerships by the end of December 2010. Toyota had 97 dealerships in the year 2009.
Toyota’s new plant in Bangalore, where the Etios is manufactured, currently produces close to 2000 units per month. Come April 2011, this number will be increased to 3000 units, followed by a major ramp-up in volumes in the month of June-July 2011. This will help the company bring down the waiting period which has already reached to four months.
At present, the localisation content in the Etios is around 70 percent. Rest of the content, including engine and transmission is imported from Japan. Within the next two years the local content will be increased to 90 percent including transmission and engine which will be locally manufactured by mid-2012 and mid-2013 respectively. In order to keep costs under control, TKM has also expanded its local vendor base which has gone up to 106 vendors as compared to 60 vendors in 2009.
The Etios was launched earlier this month with a price tag of Rs 4.96lakh for the base J variant, rising up to Rs 6.82lakh for the top-end VX model. With pre-order bookings commenced already, customers can book the Etios saloon for an initial booking amount of Rs 50,000 through all 120 TKM dealerships across India.
The Etios hatchback, called the Etios Liva will go on sale in April 2011. For the year 2011, Toyota plans to collectively sell 70,000 units of the Etios saloon and the Liva.
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Dipan Sur
Dhruv Dhaka
