The Japanese car-maker Toyota, which has had not many new offerings in the highly competitive car market in India in the recent times, will introduce new models to meet the growing demand for low-priced MPVs (multi-purpose vehicles).

These could take on competitors Ford Ecosport, Renault Duster and Honda Mobilio. The models could be placed in the ₹ 10 lakh-plus range.

“New models are in the pipeline,” Naomi Ishii, managing director of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, the Indian subsidiary of Toyota Motors, told BusinessLine. “We recognize the need for new models in the `one-million category’ (car priced around ₹ 10 lakh) soon,”. Ishii, who was in Kochi over the weekend to launch Toyota’s first driving school in the country, however, refused to divulge the details of the new models.

Asked why Toyota could not make strides in car sales in India like Hyundai or Honda, Ishii said this was perhaps because Toyota did not have many new models to offer. Toyota had been catering to the demands of higher-end customers with Innova, Fortune, Camry and Corolla, which were leaders of their segments.

Ishii said the new models would follow Toyota’s international standards and would be packed with safety features. The company laid stress on safety of car users; even the low-end models such as Liva and Etios were equipped with dual airbags.

He claimed that rather than expanding sales volume, Toyota wanted to focus on service and after-sale care to build a loyal clientele over the long run. “Toyota is not into the numbers game,” he said. Last year, its plant in Karnataka had produced 1.5 lakh units out of which 20,000 had been exported, mainly to South Africa. Ishii expects Toyota to sell almost the same number of units as last year’s.

HIGHLY TAXED

Ishii said the automobile industry in India was highly taxed. “About 50-60 per cent of a car’s cost goes towards tax,” he noted. “Tax on cars in Japan is just one-third of what it is in India.” The car makers had pinned high hopes on the Union Budget to give a boost to car manufacturing by reducing the excise duty, but the government decided otherwise. The budget was not positive for the automobile industry.

However, Ishii said the `Make in India’ policy was a great idea. This would help cut the import of electronics required for cars as these could be made in India itself. But tax cuts were needed to import new car technologies and thus upgrade the current ones.

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