Buoyed by good response in India to its newly launched sports utility vehicle, Fortuner, Toyota Motor Corp will increase output of the vehicle by 60 per cent from January next year.
Toyota, which runs Indian operations with the Kirloskar Group in a joint venture — Toyota Kirloskar Motors — had initially planned a production of 500 units a month.
"Fortuner is doing very good and we had to modify our plan for increasing production. We will increase it to 800 units every month by January next year," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director (Sales and Marketing) Sandeep Singh said at the ongoing Tokyo Auto Show here.
The company had earlier planned to increase output of the SUV to 600 units every month by January next year, he added.
Since its launch in August 24, TKM has so far sold about 1,200 units of the Fortuner in the Indian market. It was introduced at a price of Rs 18.45 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi).
The Indian premium and mid-category SUV market was estimated at 12,000 units in 2008. TKM had earlier this year said that it expects to capture 50 per cent share of the mid-SUV market.
The company, last year, sold about 51,800 units of all of its models in India and is expecting to sell about 53,500 units this year. It sells sedans Corolla Altis, Camry and utility vehicle Innova along with the Fortuner in India.