Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) expects sales to grow by around 7-8 per cent this fiscal as it marks its entry into the mid-sized sedan segment in the country with Yaris.
TKM, which is a joint venture between auto major Toyota and Kirloskar Group, today started deliveries of the new model across the country. The company expects to deliver around 1,000 vehicles today itself.
The manual transmission variants of the petrol powered Yaris are priced between Rs 8.75 lakh and Rs 12.85 lakh. Automatic variants are tagged between Rs 9.95 lakh and Rs 14.07 lakh (ex-showroom).
"We are entering a very competitive segment with Yaris. But with a host of industry first features, we are confident of the vehicle performing well in the market," TKM Deputy Managing Director N Raja told PTI.
Raja said the company is also counting on the existing around 10 lakh Toyota customers in India to drive sales for Yaris.
When asked about the company's sales growth expectations during the current fiscal, Raja said: "Our sales growth rate currently is around 3 per cent. With Yaris coming in, we hope to see our growth rate more or less like the industry, single digit -- 7-8 per cent this year."
The highly competitive mid-sized sedan segment in the country is around 2 lakh vehicles a year, dominated by the likes of Honda City, Hyundai Verna and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz.
Commenting on the response for Yaris so far, Raja said: "In less than a month of announcing the price and opening the bookings, we have collected nearly two months equivalent of customer orders."
Having initiated production last month itself, the company is looking forward to ship around 4,000 units across the country for customers by the end of this month, he added. "We hope to service all these customers by the end of this month which will take us amongst the top three in sales in the petrol segment," Raja said.
The Yaris comes with a 1.5 litre petrol engine mated to 7-speed CVT (continuous variable transmission) and 6-speed manual transmission options.
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