Toyota Kirloskar Sales Down 19 Per Cent In November, Read More

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) on Monday reported 18.86 per cent decline in total sales for November 2019 at 9,241 units. The company had sold 11,390 units in the same month last year, TKM said in a statement. Domestic sales stood at 8,312 units as against 10,721 units in the year-ago month, a decline of 22 per cent, it added. The company has been doing pipeline correction to liquidate stocks by December and work towards a smooth transition to BS VI, TKM said.

Exports, however, were up 38.86 per cent at 929 units in November as compared to 669 units in the same month a year ago. “We have consciously lowered the volume of vehicles sold to dealers to ensure lean inventory/avoid high market offers, we are adjusting our production to ensure we do not put any excess burden on our dealerships before the shift to BS-VI in April 2020,” TKM Deputy Managing Director N Raja said.

He further said positive sentiments in the market have continued to November 2019 which has reflected in the spike in customer orders across all models. The boost in customer orders for all models has sustained last month even after the end of festive season. Customers are aware of the model year price rise in January and the significant price hike of diesel vehicles by 15-20 per cent post BS-VI transition, he added.

“This pre-buying pull of BS-IV vehicles has helped us in pushing retail sales and also enabling successful runout of products before shift to BS-VI,” Raja said, adding TKM is also readjusting its production plan to be able to match supply to the increased customer demand. On the near-term outlook, Raja said,”We hope this pace in retail sales continues to year end.”

Apart from this, the automaker has introduced a new G MT (manual transmission) base variant for its Maruti Suzuki Baleno-based premium hatchback Glanza.

The premium hatchback is offered in two variants - G and V, in four different iterations depending on the engine and transmission i.e. G MT, G MT (Smart Hybrid), V MT, G CVT and V CVT. The petrol engine on the Toyota Glanza are BS6 compliant, while there are no diesel engine options. Toyota Glanza G variant comes equipped with the regular 1.2-litre VVT petrol engine.

The 1197 cc, four-cylinder engine is tuned to churn out 82 bhp at 6,000 rpm, which is about 6 bhp less than what the mild hybrid version makes. The torque output, however, is the same 113 Nm at 4,200 rpm. Toyota Glanza will get a 5-speed manual gearbox as well as the option of a CVT.

Toyota Glanza rivals the likes of the Honda Jazz, Hyundai i20 in India. Since the launch, Toyota has sold over 11,000 units of the Glanza. Glanza is also the company's second best-selling car, after the Innova Crysta.

(With inputs from PTI)