Toyota in no hurry to pension off Qualis

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) thinks the country needs more of the dated MUV Qualis. Despite its launch of the MUV replacement Innova within the next four to six months, Toyota looks set to keep the Qualis alive much beyond that.

Toyota officials when contacted stuck to standard answer, "A decision has not been taken yet. We will decide on any changes soon." But they reason, the Qualis is still a breadearner steadily selling around 3,000 units a month. Also, the Innova's seating configuration ranges between 7 and 9, while the darling of the taxi segment is the 10-seater Qualis.

With the unlikely possibility of slotting in an extra into the Innova, Toyota believes breathing life into the Qualis will not only make business sense but also ensure that the staunch 10-seater users stick to Toyota and not pick up competitors MUV's.

However, officials said the Qualis line will see very little investments, signalling that the Qualis facia will remain more or less unchanged. He said, "There certainly is no cosmetic/model changes on the anvil for Qualis. If any it will be minor absolute necessities."

With a major model makeover estimated to cost anywhere from Rs 15-70 crore, the signals are clear. Toyota wants to squeeze out as much as possible from an obsolete model, treading the same path as their country rival Suzuki. Like M800, Qualis will continue to roll out from the Toyota plant, notwithstanding replacements.

Another point that can go in Toyota's favour is the fact that the Bangalore plant's capacity will go up to 60,000 units by March-April from 45,000 now. While a bigger plant creates more room for the Qualis, the flexible nature of the assembly line will allow the two model to co-exist. Toyota's plant design allows an assembly line to simultaneously produce several models.