Toyota has halted the sale of the Corolla Altis and the Etios range for India in order to free up production capacity at the automaker’s manufacturing facility in Bidadi, Karnakata, according to Business Standard.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor, joint venture between Toyota and the Kirloskar Group for India introduced the Etios sedan in 2010 to the Indian market, followed by the Etios Liva hatchback the year after that. The company sold 448,000 units of the Etios across both bodystyles, while 116,000 units of the Corolla Altis were sold in the country since 2003, according to the report.
“This transition is a part of Toyota’s global product strategy to continue to service the ever-evolving needs of the customer through enhanced technologies and product offerings,” said Toyota Kirloskar Motor senior vice president of sales and service Naveen Soni.
March production for the cars was the final production batch for both the Etios and the Corolla Altis, said Soni, referring to the Bidadi manufacturing facility which has an annual capacity of 310,000 units. With the departure of the Etios and Corolla Altis model lines, Toyota’s range for the country is now comprised of the Fortuner, Camry Hybrid, Innova Crysta, Yaris sedan, Glanza and the Vellfire.
The outgoing Corolla Altis has been replaced by the TNGA-based global model, though despite initial plans, won’t be introduced for the Indian market due to dropping demand for sedans, with customers opting for SUVs instead, according to Autocar India. Could the SUV preference and desire for new technology could see models such as the C-HR and 2020 Harrier be earmarked for the Indian market?
Stricter BS VI emissions standards and safety regulations for India effectively sealed the fate for the outgoing Etios and Corolla Altis model lines as upgrading the engines for emissions compliance would have proven to be too expensive; similarly, complying to the new pedestrian protection standards for the market would also have meant changes to sheet metal that are difficult to justify, the report added.
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Good strategy by Toyota India. I hope Proton can follow Toyota’s Game-Changing strategy by stopping the sales of Persona, Iriz and Exora. Those 3 cars are already Game Over and need to be replaced by Geely models or just discontinue it to stop losing more money
Market shift to SUV models. the future belonged to Toyota Raize, C-HR and 2020 Harrier
It is time for Honda to continue their selling cars to be more popular & becoming best selling cars. Rather than game over jepunis cars & game over proton. Soon Honda will be overtake Proton too.
Honda needs to improve their Game Over build quality in order to overtake Proton. If it wasn’t for the poor build quality, Game-Changing Honda could have overtook Proton with it’s world-class brand image and powerful engine.
All jepunis car salesmen trembling right now. B4 MCO, P1 is solidly 2nd and within touch of P2, now experts predict after MCO, more will buy P1 and not their laoya jepunis cars.
Yaris, vios and hilux most popular models….others??
Don’t think so. Jazz, accord, civic, city, crv will stop production. Brv facelift also hardly to sell. But only popular is hrv, maybe yes or no. But launching nissan kicks/toyota smaller suv will takeover hrv sales as new car best seller
Nice badmouthing proton, mr honda troll.
Saga and x70 most popular proton models… others mcm not so much
Once MCO lifted,make no mistake,sales of new and used cars above a certain threshold value will dip south.
GONE are the days of taking 7-10 year maximum loans.
Perhaps cars in the range of RM20-40 K will remain affordable,just to take one from A to B.
With business and employment security in doubt,no sane individual will embark on huge loans.
Some car distributors like those recon expensive imports might even go bust once they realise sales is almost not forthcoming.
There is still very little light at the end of the tunnel.However,if one is patient to ride out this storm,there will be light.
Toyota Bezza will make it appearance in India.