Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Sunday, Oct 20, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Sunday, Oct 20, 2002 |
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Outlook Marketing - New Products & Services Toyota Kirloskar hopes to sell 1,000 Camrys in 1 year — Corolla to be launched next year Our Bureau
Mr Sachio Yamazaki, Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd (extreme right), at the launch of the company's new car `Toyota Camry' in Bangalore on Saturday. Also seen are Mr Vikram Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd (left), and Mr K.K. Swamy, Deputy Director.
BANGALORE, Oct. 19 TOYOTA Kirloskar Motor Ltd (TKML) plans to sell 1,000 units of luxury Camry models in its first year, company officials said. Camry was launched today in Bangalore and the company is in the process of delivering the first lot of 120 cars to its dealers. Camry, pitched in the D segment of luxury vehicles, is fully imported to India from Japan. Ex-showroom prices in Bangalore for its two variants V1 and V3 are Rs 17.95 lakh and Rs 18.45 lakh respectively. Toyota Kirloskar Motor also expects to sell 10,000 units of Corolla that is to be launched in the first quarter of next year, Mr Sandeep Singh, General Manager-Sales, said. The company plans to manufacture the Corolla in its Bidadi plant. However, he did not give any details about the price of Corolla. TKML has no plans to produce Camry in India, company officials said. "We expect the market in the D segment to grow with the introduction of Camry," the Managing Director, Mr Sachio Yamazaki, said. The Indian luxury car segment has grown to 350-400 vehicles per month in September 2002, from 250 vehicles for the same period a year ago. "The way economy is improving, things should be better," Mr Singh noted. The new 2.4-litre Camry fitted with VVT-I (variable valve timing intelligent) engine, imported through complete-built-unit (CBU) route carries an import duty of 120 per cent, four per cent Central sales tax and 12 per cent local tax. The car will be pitched against Ford Mondeo, Honda Accord and Mercedes `C' class in the D segment. Mr Yamazaki said Toyota wanted to occupy a pre-eminent position in the 1.5-million automobile market of India and has made an entry through its luxury car Camry to work towards that goal. To a question how TKML envisioned to take top slot to "kill" the competition, the TKML Chief explained that "Toyota would strive to achieve the position by pitching its strong brand image and good quality supported by top class customer service... Not so much by chasing numbers. That is why we brought our best model (Camry) to India. We don't intend to kill our competition, we want harmony with our competition". Meanwhile, the company said it has sold 69,000 Qualis since it was launched in India two and half years ago. The new Qualis version is expected to sell 14,700 units in the current year. The company earlier said that it expected to sell 36,000 units of Qualis in calendar 2003, even as it cut its sales target for the current calendar year to 29,000 units from 33,000 units as workers in its factory near Bangalore stopped work. Toyota Kirloskar expects to report revenue close to Rs 1,635 crore in the current year, up from Rs 1,621 crore a year ago, Deputy-Managing Director, Mr K.K. Swamy, said. The company reported break-even in June last year, he added.
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