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Toyota rolls out made-for-India car
Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest automaker , on Wednesday launched a car designed specifically for India with the objective of cornering a much bigger share in one of fastest growing automobile markets.
The Toyota Etios is priced aggressively between Rs 4.9 lakh and Rs 6.8 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the sedan version , significantly lower than that of competing models like Maruti's Swift Dzire.
A premium hatchback version will be launched in April next year. The two segments together constitute 37% of the Indian car market.
The importance of the launch for Toyota was evident from the presence of company president Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, who was handed the top job early this year to restore the auto major's global image, which had taken a huge beating over quality issues after a major recall in the US.
Toyoda recalled that his great-grandfather , Sakichi Toyoda, had invented weaving machines in the 1920s, which incorporated important advances in automation , and more than 200 of his Type-G automatic looms were delivered to India.
"Today , more than 80 years later, we celebrate a new arrival of Toyota technology in India," he said. "This historic day marks a new chapter in the story of Toyota in your nation . This historic launch presents Indian customers with a car that we have developed anew, especially for Indian needs and wants."
The Etios is said to be the result of five years of intensive efforts to understand the Indian market and develop a platform suited to Indian conditions . "We visited a number of Indian homes and families ," said Yoshinori Noritake , the man who was put in charge of developing the car and who made an average of 10 visits to India in each of the last five years.
"We realized that Indians want their vehicles to be status symbols. Our target segment was highly price-conscious , and wanted good mileage, space and style in their cars. They saw Toyota as being high-quality , but also priced high," he said. So the company designed a sedan that was "not a hatchback with a boot" (a dig at the Swift Dzire and the Tata Indica/Indigo ), but a "true sedan" .
Toyota rolls out made-for-India car - The Times of India
---------- Post added at 10:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 AM ----------
Toyota Motor Corp, the world's largest automaker , on Wednesday launched a car designed specifically for India with the objective of cornering a much bigger share in one of fastest growing automobile markets.
The Toyota Etios is priced aggressively between Rs 4.9 lakh and Rs 6.8 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi) for the sedan version , significantly lower than that of competing models like Maruti's Swift Dzire.
A premium hatchback version will be launched in April next year. The two segments together constitute 37% of the Indian car market.
The importance of the launch for Toyota was evident from the presence of company president Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota's founder, who was handed the top job early this year to restore the auto major's global image, which had taken a huge beating over quality issues after a major recall in the US.
Toyoda recalled that his great-grandfather , Sakichi Toyoda, had invented weaving machines in the 1920s, which incorporated important advances in automation , and more than 200 of his Type-G automatic looms were delivered to India.
"Today , more than 80 years later, we celebrate a new arrival of Toyota technology in India," he said. "This historic day marks a new chapter in the story of Toyota in your nation . This historic launch presents Indian customers with a car that we have developed anew, especially for Indian needs and wants."
The Etios is said to be the result of five years of intensive efforts to understand the Indian market and develop a platform suited to Indian conditions . "We visited a number of Indian homes and families ," said Yoshinori Noritake , the man who was put in charge of developing the car and who made an average of 10 visits to India in each of the last five years.
"We realized that Indians want their vehicles to be status symbols. Our target segment was highly price-conscious , and wanted good mileage, space and style in their cars. They saw Toyota as being high-quality , but also priced high," he said. So the company designed a sedan that was "not a hatchback with a boot" (a dig at the Swift Dzire and the Tata Indica/Indigo ), but a "true sedan" .
Toyota rolls out made-for-India car - The Times of India
---------- Post added at 10:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 AM ----------
