The auspicious festive season coupled with hefty discounts and exchange offers introduced by car makers in the country saw more buyers enter dealer showrooms in the past few months. Sales also increased due to the urgent need for personal mobility in view of the coronavirus pandemic while pent up demand over the past several months also had a positive impact on sales.
But with festive season coming to an end, car makers in India have posted a not so impressive sales performance for Nov 2020. India’s leading car brand, Maruti has posted a decline in sales. Toyota on the other hand, has posted a marginal increase in sales for Nov 2020.
Toyota Kirloskar Motors has revealed their sales results for November 2020 wherein it can be seen that the month ended on a positive note. Domestic wholesales increased 2.4 percent to 8,509 units, up from 8,312 units sold in November 2019. Festive cheer brought in a 10-13 percent increase in orders while retail sales increased 12 percent in the past month.
Majority of Toyota India’s sales have come from their rebadged cars – Glanza and Urban Cruiser. These cars are basically rebadged versions of Maruti Baleno and Brezza – which are sold to Toyota by Suzuki. As per Maruti, they have sold a total of 5,263 units of Glanza and Urban Cruiser to Toyota in Nov 2020.
Toyota union had called for a strike causing a lockout at the company’s Bidadi plant on November 10 after the workers stated that their demand to withdraw the suspension of a worker was not met. The local state government labor department had prohibited the strike and the legal lock out as declared by the management from November 19, directing all operations to resume.
However, only a few workers reported for work. Though this lockout impacted production and whole sales, the company managed to cater to market demand from available stocks at the factory and at dealership.
In November, Toyota introduced the new Innova Crysta MPV. The 2nd gen Innova Crysta has seen sales of close to 3 lakh units since launch in 2016 and now the facelift model comes in to woo buyers in a price range from Rs 16,26,000 to Rs 24,33,000 (ex-showroom India, except Kerala).
The Innova Crysta is presented in three variants of GX, VX and ZX. It gets the latest in terms of design, infotainment and safety features and a choice of petrol and diesel engine options. New Innova prices have been increased by up to Rs 70,000.