Noting increased demand in the North Eastern states of India, compared to the rest of the country, automakers are keen to expand both networks and service stations in these states of India. Maruti Suzuki made similar announcements earlier this month, and now Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) have also announced their intentions to expand reach in North East. They will start with a new area office, set to come up in Guwahati.
Sales across India have been steadily decreasing in the past few months. Experts have predicted that next few months too will see low sales in auto industry. This has prompted auto manufacturer to penetrate deeper in exisiting markets. TKM currently has 7 dealerships in North East, situated in Guwahati, Nagaon, Dibrugarh and Silchar in Assam, Shillong in Meghalaya, Dimapur in Nagaland and Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh. An additional 9 new Toyota Kirloskar dealers will be set up in the region by end of this year.
TKM have noted that it is their Innova, Etios, Liva and Fortuner that have seen increased demand in the region while even premium vehicles such as the Camry and Land Cruiser are in demand with more preference being shown to diesel over the petrol variants.
Speaking about the new Camry Hybrid for India, Toyota India reveals that this will be the first hybrid to be assembled locally. It will be sold as CKD, thus implementing on their previously announced plan to assemble more and more hybrid cars to the Indian auto industry, reports ET. They first launched a hybrid in the form of Toyota Prius back in 2010. A total of 175 units have been sold till date.
New Camry Hybrid sedan is being targeted towards those who are environment conscious. It offers fuel efficiency of 19.16 kmpl as per ARAI and is fitted with a 2.5 liter petrol engine along with an electric motor. These two in conjuncture produce about 200 bhp power. Once launched, Camry Hybrid will be sold at about Rs 36 lakh, making it the highest priced sedan under the Toyota line-up.
