Toyota India ended Q4 2020 on a strong note with December wholesales in the green
2020. The year that was, is finally over. While FY21 started on a catastrophic note of inactivity, manufacturers have been able to post improved sales in recent months. Q4 2020 having been most impressive. Maruti released their sales earlier today, posting 20% growth.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor reported 14 percent growth in domestic wholesales in December 2020. That number stands at 6 percent for Q4 2020. Growth spurt was backed by customer orders, a section of which was deferred owing to uncertain conditions earlier months. Toyota Kirloskar Motor reports sales of 7487 units in December 2020. That’s 14 percent growth over 6,544 wholesales in December 2019.
Demand for Toyota cars
Naveen Soni, Sr. Vice President TKM said, “As we wrap up the year, we are happy to have registered a 14% growth in wholesales in December 2020, when compared to sales in the same period in 2019. We have also managed to retain more than 6% growth in wholesales in the last quarter of calendar year 2020, when compared to the last quarter of 2019.”
For now, customer orders are ‘rising significantly’. TKM says retail sales is encouraging. The overall positivity gives TKM the confidence to embark on a new target for 2021. In December 2020, adjustments were made on the production front to accommodate new model launches, as also model year changes.
Primary focus would have been to dispatch all MY20 stock of Fortuner. With this, TKM starts new Fortuner production at its Bidadi plant. The SUV is scheduled for launch next week.
Toyota Urban Cruiser, a true blue Maruti Suzuki vehicle was introduced in recent months. Response for newly launched Facelifted Innova Crysta was ‘very good’. Glanza continues to get more sales for the Japanese company.
2020 has been full of challenges. With it came significant learnings, and renewed focus on localization and digitalization. Toyota India opines that ‘current economic revival is likely to help sustain the sales momentum in 2021’. TKM is hopeful that 2021 will see a V shaped recovery of the economy. And resultantly, the industry would bounce back. To meet demand, Toyota India plans to expand product line-up in a sustainable and phased manner.
Maruti and Toyota association
MSIL has reported wholesales to other OEMs at 3,808 units in December 2020. This includes Toyota Glanza and Urban Cruiser. Glanza has been around much longer and played a role in familiarising the Indian market with vehicle sharing between Toyota and Maruti. With the launch of Toyota urban Cruiser based on Vitara Brezza, the association has gained steam with positive growth. Growth in December was as much as 180 percent, up from 1,360 units.
For FY21 thus far, MSILs sales to other OEM segment is reported at 21,224 units, up from 17,950 units at 18.2 percent. Through FY20, MSIL wholesales to Toyota India was reported at 25k units. In fact, the Maruti venture now makes up for a significant percent of total Toyota sales in the domestic market. And in turn, share of Toyota’s homegrown vehicles have lost share though the company continues to be in the green in recent months.
