Toyota India car sales continue to register sales decline – Sep 2020 sales down 25%
Toyota Kirloskar Motor reports September 2020 total sales at 8,116 units. This falls shy of the 10,203 units sold in the domestic market in September 2019. That time 708 units of Etios were exported, putting total sales a year earlier at 10,911.
This itself was at a sales decline of 17 percent from September 2018 when total sales was reported at 13,078 units, and domestic sales at 12,512 units. In two years, the company has sustained 37 percent sales volume loss. This despite the fact that the company has used this time to introduce it’s new Maruti rebadged cars (Glanza and Urban Cruiser), and introduced a range of regular vehicle updates and special editions across its product line-up.
It’s difficult to assess domestic sales decline as on date; as domestic and exports sales breakup has not been revealed by the company for Sep 2020. For now, total sales decline is reported at 25.61 units.
Within this, MSIL has reported its sales to other OEMs, namely Toyota, at a decline of 13 percent. MSIL sales to Toyota fell to 2,568 units from 2,952 units in September 2019.
Glanza + Urban Cruiser
It should be noted, earlier this sales component only consisted of Maruti Suzuki Baleno based Toyota Glanza. Last week, TKM launched Urban Cruiser based on Vitara Brezza. The brand says, ‘We have got a very good response from our customers and the market, ever since we opened the bookings for Urban Cruiser.’ As such, from henceforth, the MSIL sales commitment to Toyota will be a sum total of both cars that the brands now share, and sell simultaneously. It’s trusted workhorse, Innova remains bestseller (facelifted Innova launch soon).
MoM sales for manufacturers across the spectrum are showing a green sign. This can be attributed to phased and gradual re-opening of markets that had restricted business activity owing to lockdown. TKM attributes sales growth to a range of factors including pent up demand amongst customers and the grace of the ongoing festive season, which has traditionally been period of high sales in the automotive industry.
Where production is concerned, manufacturing at TKM is back to two shift production a day. MoM sales growth is reported at 46 percent, up from total sales of 5,555 units reported in August 2020.
Naveen Soni, Sr. Vice President, Sales and Service– TKM said, “We are seeing demand pick up and a lot more confidence in our dealers, thereby witnessing a 14 to 18% growth in orders when compared to last few months. September has been our best month so far, ever since the pandemic hit us in March 2020.”