Japanese car manufacturer, Toyota announced that they would be decreasing the wait period for their Etios sedan to a month, from the present two months, within a fortnight itself. They will also launch the hatchback version of their Etios sedan, Liva on 27th June.
The MD of the company, Hiroshi Nakagawa, said that they have delayed launching their early awaited Liva small car so that they could satisfy the demand in the market for their Etios sedan that has been very successful. The company hopes to sell around 60,000 models of the Liva and Etios sedan this year.
They are also increasing their production with an investment of INR 300 crore by mid 2011. They expect to sell around 2.1 lakh models next year.
Meanwhile, the company’s Deputy MD, Marketing, Sandeep Singh, said that they had earlier set their target as 1.5 lakh units to be sold this year. They have now brought down this target to 1.4 lakh units because of the one month halt cut in productions following the March natural disaster in Japan.
The company is all set to board an aggressive strategy of localisation across verticals. Singh said that the Etios is 70% locally built, a figure that they want to take to 90% by two years time, adding that the Toyota Etios will outdo the Innova in sales for this month. They are their eyes on the market of mass volume. At present, however their prime target does not involve capturing greater market share, but rather satisfying their customers first.