The month of December 2016 has been mishmash for the Indian automobile industry. While the largest passenger carmaker Maruti Suzuki saw a decline of 4.4%, the Japanese carmaker – Toyota Kirloskar Motor has registered its highest monthly sales in December in the last five years. The Indian subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation has sold 12,747 units with a growth of 29% when compared to the same month previous year.
In the domestic market, Toyota sold a total of 12,747 units making it the highest ever December sales in the last five years. In the same month, the company exported 1,346 units of the Etios series, which is 905 units more than the previous year. In 2015, the company sold 10,442 cars, and exported 441 units of the Etios . Read – Toyota To Launch India’s Safest & Most Fuel Efficient Small Car
Commenting on the monthly sales, Mr. N. Raja, Director & Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, “December is usually a high selling month as most manufacturers try and liquidate the year end stocks and come up with schemes offering huge discounts on products. In our case, we ensure a lean inventory at all times both on our side as well as the dealer and we have been able to maintain the same in the year end as well. This indicates the strong demand in the market for our products and especially the demand for the new Crysta and Fortuner which are new launches. Both these products have received an overwhelming response and we are very grateful to our customers for that.
Having said that, the number of walk-ins at the dealership and enquiries have been impacted due to demonetization in the past two months. Although we saw a slight surge in footfalls and customer enquiries in December, the effects of demonetization will reflect until the first quarter of this year. We hope that the New Year will bring in positive sentiments in the market. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year”, continued Mr. Raja.
Talking about the growth, the all-new Toyota Fortuner and Innova Crysta have registered over 174% and 65% growth respectively in the previous month. Besides this, the company has already achieved another milestone last month with the Fortuner recording over one lakh units in India since its launch in 2009. The Toyota Platinum Etios, too, has been receiving a good response. The sedan has been enjoying a constant growth of 7% in the last quarter ever since its launch in India.
