Its been 20 years since Toyota introduced its maiden product in the Indian market i.e the Qualis. And since then, the company has expanded multiple folds, be it in terms of its product line-up or its reach to the Indian masses. Products like the Innova and Fortuner have become household names as well as segment benchmarks. Toyota Kirloskar Motors was incorporated back in 1997 and in 2019, the car manufacturer completes its 20 years since the production began at its Bidadi plant which is located on the outskirts of the city of Bangalore in the state of Karnataka. It was in the year 2000 that Toyota launched the Qualis in India, followed by the Corolla in 2003 and the first generation Innova, the successor to Qualis in the year 2005.
In the year 2009 came the Fortuner, with the Etios twins making their way to our shores in 2010. Innova and Fortuner, till date, continue to remain the highest sellers for the brand in India, with their respective second-generation iterations being introduced during the year 2016. In 2017, Toyota introduced its premium brand Lexus in the Indian market. And in 2018, we saw the arrival of the Yaris C-segment sedan. Apart from this, other important milestones in the brand’s history in India include the establishment of TTTI (Toyota Technical Training Institute) in 2007, the commencement of Camry production in 2013, beginning the exports of the Etios vehicles in 2014 along with the reaching a total of 100,000 production mark during the same year. Toyota Kirloskar Motors currently boasts of a dealership network which stands at a total of 359 units. The interesting thing to note here is that these facilities are run by just 77 dealer principals.
In a recent visit to Toyota’s Bidadi plant, we were given a detailed glimpse of what goes on ‘Behind the Scenes’ in the company’s day to day working. Right from how it manages its stocks and parts to how Toyota dealerships ensure the timely delivery of a customer’s vehicle. We were also introduced with the various CSR initiates that the company has undertaken in order to ‘give back’ to the community amongst which it currently operates. One such initiative is the Toyota Technical Training Institute which is located inside the automaker’s plant. Here, students are given free training on the basis of a curriculum that is in sync with the latest trends and practices followed in the Industry. To put things in perspective, graduates of this institute, we were told, will be capable enough to completely dismantle a vehicle and put it back again while ensuring speed, accuracy and quality.
Toyota is currently also working on a number of pilot projects. One of these is the setting up of an in-house vehicle recycling system. In here, trained personnel can fully dismantle a car, part by part, and send the same to government-run facilities for further recycling. In addition to this, the car manufacturer is also doing trial runs of a remote servicing van. Working on the Japanese Kaizen philosophy, Toyota has recently introduced EM60 or Express Maintenance within 60 minutes for periodic maintenance across a number of its dealerships in India.
The principle behind the same is to declutter the servicing process and ensures the timely delivery of customer’s vehicle. Under EM60, it takes a total of 60 minutes right from the time a customer reaches a dealership when his/her vehicle is taken for the service which includes maintenance, as well as washing and thereafter given back. There are a number of different Express Maintainance packages which and can opt for. In addition to the EM60, there is EM90 and EM120 which offer a number of different packages for periodic maintenance to the customers.
Going forward, Toyota plans to leverage the maximum possible from its partnership with Suzuki in India. Under this, the company is going to launch the rebadged version of a total of four Suzuki cars in India. The first one based on the Maruti Suzuki Baleno i.e. the Glanza premium hatchback will make its debut on the 6th of June this year. The introduction of the same will be followed by the debut of rebadged iterations of the Vitara Brezza, Ertiga as well as the C-Segment sedan Ciaz. With stringent emission and crash test regulations coming in play, Toyota is going to upgrade its line-up to meet the same. At a time when the future of diesel engine is uncertain, Toyota stands firm on its commitment to continue selling oil-burners and at the same time modify its strategies according to the customer demands.