Toyota aims at 19% growth in sales

Toyota Kirloskar Motor is targeting sales of 48,200 cars this calendar, up 19 per cent over the previous year.

The company will also turn into the fifth largest automaker in the country, with its capacity rising to 60,000 units from 45,000 now. The company said it will focus on volume-driven segments, adding it is studying the small car market now.

The sales as expected will be driven by the company's premium multi-utility vehicle segment leader Qualis, with contributions from Corolla and Camry, segment leaders as well. The company said the poor monsoons in parts of the country has not impacted the Qualis sales.

To pep up Camry sales, Toyota unveiled a new look Camry and along with it an automatic transmission (AT) variant. This, the company hopes, will assist it scale the targeted 1,200 Camry sales this year. Qualis, the company claims, has a 35 per cent market share in the premium MUV segment while the Corolla has a 33 per cent share in its segment.

In the first eight months of the year, Toyota has managed to sell only 684 Camrys. Last year, Camry numbers stood at 1,005 and in 2002, post October launch, Toyota sold 267 units.

Speaking at the launch, TKM managing director Atsushi Toyoshima said, "The move to launch Camry-AT was backed by the fact that globally AT variants account for 50 per cent of the premium segment."

In India, though the D segment (priced at Rs 14 lakh and above), which has a 0.71 per cent share of the total passenger car market, is still chauffeur-driven. However, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the premium segment has been steadily growing and auto variants have posted strong growth.

The new Camry sports a refined grill, clear lens head lamps, and fog lamps. Its interior comes with a 10-way power seat, curtain air bags and rear AC duct. Toyota said, it has phased out the existing Camry variants and will offer the new look Camry under four variants.

It will bear a broad price tag of Rs 18 lakh to 20 lakh and will come in six colours. This effectively means, the Camry will be dearer by about Rs 30,000. The AT variant will be priced at Rs 19.14 lakh (ex-showroom) in Bangalore, officials said.

As the Camry is imported in the CBU (completely built unit) form, the Indian production line will not need any investments, they added. For the current calendar, Toyota hopes to sell 35,000 Qualis compared to 30,000 sold last year, 12,000 Corolla (7,870) and 1,200 Camry (1,005). In the first eight months the company sold 27,500 Qualis and 7,870 Corolla.

This year, the Toyota Kirloskar venture has seen strong investments. While the present move to increase capacity to 60,000 units is one, Toyota also made the venture's transmission unit as a sourcing hub. In the last 12 months, the company has added 400 people, taking its workforce to 2,297.