Price Of Toyota Qualis May Be Increased Soon

The price of Toyota Kirloskar's multipurpose vehicle Qualis may be hiked, according to Toyota Kirloskar Managing Director Sachio Yamazaki.

At a Press conference after the opening of its plant here, Mr Yamazaki said the current prices of Qualis were low in commemoration of its entry into India. They are touch-and-try prices to get the feedback from the market on the launch of Toyota vehicles, he said.

To a query whether prices would be lowered in keeping with the market conditions, Mr yamazaki said rather than cutting down prices, we may have to increase prices. He however did not specify any time-frame.

 

The cost of Qualis ranged from less than Rs. five lakh (for the lower end model) to Rs. eight lakh for the higher-end model. The lower end model is easily affordable by the middle-class, he said.

Since the launch of the Qualis in January this year there were 2,326 vehicles. The company had received 8,141 orders which were now being taken care of. The parent company's honorary chairman Dr. S.Toyoda said the focus right now would be on increased production of the Qualis rather than any overall expansion of the plant.

As of now, the newly-opened plant was manufacturing at the rate of 1000 vehicles per year. Work was on a single-shift which would increase to two

shifts shortly. Tata Kirloskar Motor (TKM) vice-president Vikram S Kirloskar said the first step would be to gear up to making 25,000 vehicles per year. Later, depending on the demand and response from the market we would increase this to 50,000 vehicles per annum, he said.

The equity ratio between Toyota and Kirloskar was initially decided at 74 to 26. But, since Kirloskar was not able to pool in all the money it had promised, the equity ratio was now 89 to 11. As and when Kirloskar is ready, it can buy back shares from us to reach the originally decided ratio, Mr Yamazaki said.

To a query whether TKM would export Qualis, the managing director said the attention right now was to deliver international-quality models to the Indian customer. Of course we are interested in exports not only of our car but also of components, he added.

On why Toyota decided to go in for multipurpose vehicles (MPV) rather than a conventional car, Mr Yamazaki said their market research had shown rapid increase in demand for MPVs not only in India but around the world. That was why we went in for Qualis.

The Toyota top brass said it had high hopes on India. As of now, some eight lakh vehicles of all kinds were being sold each year. In 2000, this is expected to touch one million. We expect the growth to be atleast 20% per year. India will thus become one of the leading markets in the world for automobiles, Mr Yamazaki said.