In a bid to increase the profit margin, Toyota company’s Indian subsidiary is looking for the export of Etios to Europe. On record there has been a proposal to export Etios to countries around India and South Africa. The car is manufactured in the plant near Bangalore. The feature was confirmed by the Deputy MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motor company. If it happens, Toyota will join the elite group of car makers – Maruti, Hyundai and Nissan – exporting small cars to Europe. Of late the export of small cars has come down due to the withdrawal of incentive offered for scrappage system in Europe.
Thus, Maruti has tolled its export to 110% (147575 units), Hyundai’s export rose by 12% (285658 units). Going by the scrapping of scrappage incentive in Europe, it is estimated that the export business to Europe may still fall during this fiscal. Toyota has been on the clouds of export market ever since it recalled its 8.4 million cars from Europe. However, Toyota has no such fears in the Indian market except a slight slid in the net sales, said the DyMD for sales and Marketing, Toyota Kirloskar. The company has got its own reservations on exporting Etios to Asia Pacific due to the exorbitant spare making facility. But in Europe the condition is different, with the labor cost reduced by 30-40%.
In order to streamline the distribution of Etios in India by this December, Toyota is on the verge of increasing the dealer network to 150 from the current 98. The move will be to enter the smaller towns and cities by doubling the manpower to 2500 for sales and making the service employees to 6000 from the current 2500. In the meantime, the company has got some cheering with orders coming for Prius in 82numbers. So far the company has delivered 10 units since the dispatch from April. Toyota is on a principle to import Prius against assured orders due to the huge import duties. Honda had to shell out Rs8 lakhs as discount for its Civic which it imported but now the company has withdrawn importing the car.