Toyota retires Qualis, new MPV soon

In a move that settles the debate of the fate of Toyota Kirloskar Motor's (TKM) best selling model Qualis, the company announced here on Tuesday the withdrawal of the model from the Indian market.

A company statement said the decision to phase out the model was made since "the Indian automobile market has been growing rapidly and our market research indicated changing needs of the customer."

The statement further says that the removal of the Qualis from the market "will give way for a more modern and customer-value driven vehicle. The new vehicle will enable TKM to achieve volume and market share objectives in India is future."

The company says that the new model will be able to satisfy the requirements of both the multi purpose vehicle (MPV) and passenger car markets.

"The Qualis has been our mainstay in India for the past five years. It has provided the perfect platform for Toyota in this country, but we feel it is time to bring in newer products that will provide better value to the customer. We will continue to provide quality products, quality service and aim to 'Touch the Perfection' in all our activities," said Mr. A Toyoshima, managing director, TKM.

An earlier report in Business Standard hinting at the imminent withdrawal of the model from the market, said that among other reasons, the need to meet the Bharat Stage-III standard for emission from April 1, 2005 could be one of the reasons for the phasing out the Qualis.

The paper had also earlier reported the planned launch of another MPV from the company, Innova, within the next six months.

The launch of this vehicle, which has a seating configuration from 7 to 9, might almost coincide with an expansion of the Karnataka plant's capacity from around 45,000 units now to 60,000 units by March-April 2005.

The multi purpose vehicle, which was introduced in 2000, was one of the first of its kind in the country, the only other serious competitor at that time being the Tata Sumo.

The Qualis managed to garner 35 per cent of the market share, selling over 21,000 units in the first year alone. In 2001, its market share grew to an impressive 40 per cent which was followed by the introduction of a 7 seater variant in September 2002.

The year though, saw the MPV model slip slightly to 38 per cent market share and with the introduction of more competing models in 2003, the slide continued to 32 per cent.

In 2004, Qualis sales grew 20 per cent over the previous year to 36,698 units and in the last month of production, December 2004, the model saw the highest ever retail sales crossing 4000 units in one month.

The MPV segment of the Indian automobile industry has grown from less than 9 per cent in 2000 to over 11 per cent in 2003. Other models available in the segment includes M&M's Scorpio, Tata's Sumo and GM's Tavera.

TKM is a joint venture between Toyota Motor Corporation and the Kirloskar Group. TKM has invested nearly Rs. 900 crores in its plant at Bidadi, Karnataka which started production in December 1999 and employs over 2,300 people. The plant started production in December 1999.