Toyota, the world?s biggest car maker, has set a target to reach total sales of 1,50,000 units by the end of the next calendar year. The company that has presence in India through a joint venture with Bangalore-based Kirloskar Group expects small car Etios to be the primary volume driver for the company.
?Next year, total sales of the company will be 1,50,000 units. Of that, we expect Etios to be around 67,000 units… If we produce 70,000 (Etios) cars, sales would be anywhere between 65,000 and 67,000 (units),? Sandeep Singh, deputy managing director of the company, said. He added that Toyota hopes to reach a total sales of 70,000 units this year against 63,837 in the previous year.
Since bookings re-opened for its stylish sports utility vehicle Fortuner, which is priced at Rs 19 lakh, from July 1, the company has witnessed a total of 2,500 bookings. The company had stopped taking orders from January 31. However, the company is facing a problem of increasing backlogs. At present, the total backlog is 2,500 units. Singh said, ?The total delivery pending is 6,500 units. Once it reaches 7,000 units, we will stop taking orders again.?
In June, the company had decided to increase production of Fortuner to 950 units from 500 units per month. Since its launch in August last year, the company has sold 8,500 units of the SUV.
On Wednesday the company launched the diesel variant of Corolla Altis. This is the company’s first diesel sedan in the country. With the base model priced at a competitive Rs 10.95 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi), the car is expected to give tough competition to Chevrolet Cruze, Volkswagen Jetta and Skoda’s Laura and Octavia.