Toyota piggybacks on Maruti for record sales

In May 2023, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) sold 20,410 cars (domestic sales of 19,379 units and exports of 1,031 units) — its highest ever wholesales in a single month — registering a growth of 110% over 10,216 cars sold in May 2022. Automotive analysts FE spoke with said TKM wouldn’t have reached this milestone without the help of Maruti Suzuki.

Consider this: In May 2023, TKM sold 5,010 units of the Glanza (the rebadged version of Maruti Suzuki Baleno), and 15,400 units of the Urban Cruiser Hyryder, Innova Crysta, Innova Hycross, Hilux, Fortuner, Legender, Camry and Vellfire (Toyota’s ‘own’ cars).

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It’s been five years since Toyota Motor and Suzuki Motor agreed to start discussing new joint projects in the fields of technological development, vehicle production and market development (on May 28, 2018). The same day they announced mutual supply of vehicles for the Indian market to benefit both TKM (the joint venture between Toyota and Kirloskar Group) and Maruti Suzuki (the Indian arm of Suzuki). The first car under that joint venture was the Glanza (launched on June 6, 2019), and the second was the Urban Cruiser (rebadged Brezza, launched on September 23, 2020).

While the Urban Cruiser was discontinued last year to make way for the Urban Cruiser Hyryder (which TKM also sells to Maruti Suzuki as the Grand Vitara), the Glanza has been going strong, with sales of 20,280 units in this calendar year (January-May 2023). “The Glanza has been consistently selling about 4,000 units per month for a while now,” an automotive analyst told FE.

“It has given TKM a new set of customers, and a section of those have even chosen to buy the more expensive Urban Cruiser Hyryder.”

While the Glanza is priced Rs 6.71 lakh onward, the Urban Cruiser Hyryder starts at Rs 10.73 lakh (ex-showroom).

Last year, a senior TKM executive had told FE that more than 65% Glanza customers are first-time Toyota buyers. “It has given TKM an entirely new set of customers, who may not have otherwise entered the Toyota family because TKM earlier didn’t have a car at a price point they could buy,” he said.

A Toyota dealer from Delhi-NCR added that the Glanza (previously the Urban Cruiser) attracted a lot of prospective buyers to TKM dealerships, and ‘influenced’ many others — some even on a budget — to consider Toyota cars. “The Urban Cruiser Hyryder starts at Rs 10.73 lakh, relatively affordable for a Toyota badge,” he said.

An automotive analyst who has consulted with both Maruti Suzuki and TKM told FE that while Toyota’s models like the Innova (Rs 18.55 lakh) and the Fortuner (Rs 32.6 lakh) have solid demand in their niche segments, with waiting list running into many months, it’s the ‘volume’ models such as the Glanza and the Urban Cruiser Hyryder that have helped the carmaker cross 20,000 sales in a month.

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TKM previously used to have two volume models — the Etios Liva hatchback and the Etios midsize sedan — but both were discontinued when the BS6 emission norms were implemented April 1, 2020 onwards. The other TKM car to go that time was the Corolla Altis (the world’s largest selling car, but couldn’t succeed in India).

Today, while Maruti Suzuki manufactures the Glanza for TKM at the Suzuki Gujarat Plant in Hansalpur, TKM manufactures the Urban Cruiser Hyryder at its Bidadi plant near Bengaluru and sells it to Maruti Suzuki as the Grand Vitara. Both the Urban Cruiser Hyryder and the Grand Vitara have mild hybrid (developed by Suzuki) and strong hybrid (developed by Toyota) engine options, and rival SUVs such as Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Volkswagen Taigun and Skoda Kushaq, among others.

Eventually, 2025 onwards, Toyota and Suzuki are expected to manufacture compact electric cars for India as well as for export.