Toyota eyes 19% surge in sales this year

Toyota Kirloskar Motor is targeting sales of 48,200 cars for this calendar year, up 19 per cent over the previous year. The company will also turn the fifth largest automaker in the country, with its capacity going up to 60,000 units from 45,000 now.

The firm 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 monsoon performance in some parts of the country has not impacted Qualis sales. To pep up Camry sales, Toyota unveiled a new look Camry and along with it an automatic transmission 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 units of Camry. Last year, Camry numbers stood at 1005 and in 2002, post the October launch, Toyota sold 267 units.