After Tata Motors, Toyota now overtakes Honda in India

It’s not just Tata Motors that has overtaken Honda in the Indian market. Even Toyota Kirloskar Motors has now pushed Honda down to 6th place. Toyota has now become India’s fifth largest automaker after posting sales of 12,734 units in November 2017. Honda, on the other hand, sold only 12,102 units in the same month.

Toyota’s good performance has come due to the Innova Crysta MPV, Etios Liva hatchback and the Fortuner luxury SUV doing well. On the other hand, Honda’s poor performance can be attributed to its best selling car – the City sedan – selling only around 3,000 units, which is much lower than its average sales of 4,500 monthly units.

N Raja, director & senior vice-president, Sales & Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said this about his company’s performance in November 2017,

We are delighted that our legendary products the Innova Crysta and Fortuner continue to witness strong demand in the market. The demand has grown every month since its launch last year in 2016. This positive growth reflects the confidence customers have on the Toyota products delivering the best quality, comfort, safety to customers. The Etios Liva has also done really well this month and has positively contributed towards the overall domestic sales growth.

In 2018 though, we expect Honda to bounce back and push down Toyota in India. The reason for this is the multiple new launches that Honda has planned for the Indian market. In 2018, the car maker will launch the all-new Amaze compact sedan, which is expected to bring in some good numbers. The company will also launch the diesel powered version of the CR-V, for the first time in the Indian market.

The HR-V compact SUV, which will compete with the Hyundai Creta is another vehicle coming to India next year. On the other hand, Toyota only has the Vios C-Segment planned for a Diwali 2018 launch in India. The car will be petrol-only initially, and this diminishes its prospects somewhat as rivals like the Honda City, Hyundai Verna and the Maruti Ciaz offer both petrol and diesel engines.

Via ETAuto