Indian automotive industry is struggling with one of the worst sales decline. Major automakers have mostly suspended production temporarily. This is an effort to deal with growing inventories. They have been continuously appealing to the Indian government to reduce GST rates from the current 28% to 18%. An Orange County Toyota Dealer shared that Toyota believes it will help if entities start pre-buying diesel vehicles.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor has said that prices of diesel vehicles are set to go up by about 15-20%. The drive fleet operators as well as shared mobility organizations will stock up vehicles ahead of the price hike with this Toyota aims to leverage pre-buying to put a brake on the ongoing sales decline.
N Raja, deputy managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), explained that cars powered by diesel engines require the use of more technologies to curb particulate matter. This is to ensure compliance with meet BS 6 norms. Raja added Toyota Fortuner diesel currently gets a price tag ranging between ₹29.85 lakh to ₹33.6 lakh but could get a price hike of ₹4.5 lakh. He added that they are looking at the fleet segment, employee transport and shared mobility as their options where diesel vehicles are used and there is price sensitivity.
Toyota has come forward to educate customers on shared mobility, fleet and employee transport, etc. This will inform them about the impending price hike, and deliver requisite solutions whether it’s BS 4 or BS 6 vehicles.
All Toyota cars in India will be BS VI compliant on time & the company will be ready to start supplying vehicles by January-February, 2020 depending on the availability of BS 6 fuel.