Toyota Aims Market Domination With Its mid-size sedan 'Yaris'
Toyota Aims Market Domination With Its mid-size sedan 'Yaris'

Japanese automobile giant Toyota Kirloskar Motor Ltd is in the hope of breaking its cords to lead the midsize sedan segment with its upcoming new launch 'Yaris' later this year.

Dominated by the troika of Honda City, Maruti Ciaz and Hyundai Verna, the Indian market remained low for its first new launch of ill-fated Etios sedan and hatchback twins in 2010. The company is banking on class-leading safety features that include seven airbags in the top end variant to get the better of its competitors.

Shekhar Vishwanathan, Vice Chairman-External Affairs, TKML said, "We have set a target to sell around 5000 units of the model every month.The Indian market is increasingly more conscious about the safety aspects of a car. We have been a pioneer of sorts by introducing dual airbags as standard across our entire range even before regulations made it mandatory. Now with the Yaris we are taking it further with seven airbags."

He said the mid-size sedan segment is a lucrative but highly competitive category. While the evolution of the compact sports utility vehicle segment, with the likes of Renault Duster and Hyundai Creta, has impacted its growth in the last few years, new models like Hyundai Verna has helped expand the segment somewhat. In the past six months, sales of the three dominant cars--City, Ciaz and Verna -- are nearly identical at around 4,500 units per month.

Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Honda Cars India said, "Any new model introduction does excite the market but we need to look at the real impact of it only after the first few months. What we can be sure of however, is that the entry of Yaris will expand the segment." 

Yaris will be furnished with limited features in India like a 1.5L petrol engine with a power output of about 107 hp and a 6-Speed manual transmission as also a 7-step automatic transmission.

 
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