Toyota Etios is planned to be finally launched in December this year. The company is in final stages of launching the car as its round of display across Indian cities comes to an end shortly. Toyota Etios was in Bangalore recently where Toyota India MD Hiroshi Nakagawa stated that Toyota Etios will compete against models like Maruti Swift and Hyundai i20 in the Indian market.
“It has been a challenge to build quality at a lower price,” Nakagawa said. “The Indian car market is one of the toughest markets in the world. Customers and car owners are very cost-conscious,” he said. Toyota has managed to lower the cost of its cars with sourcing of components from Indian market itself. 70 percent of the components in the car are locally sourced keeping price under control and quality uncompromised.
Toyota is reeling under quality control pressures in the global markets. Thus, while launching Etios it has kept quality and safety as its prime features apart from the price. “Bringing procurement cost to a very competitive level is a do or die challenge for our procurement and production teams,” Executive Vice President Yukitoshi Funo said in an interview.
Toyota Etios will be initially launched in the Indian market first and then will be subsequently introduced in China and Brazil.
Source: CarTradeIndia.com
