Due to low sales of the Corolla Altis and the Etios range and high expenses involved in making them BS6 compliant, Toyota has pulled the plug on these two models in India.
With the coming in of the BS6 norms, Toyota’s product lineup in India has been trimmed off quite a few cars. Toyota had already announced that they would be discontinuing the Etios, Etios Liva, the Etios Cross and the Corolla Altis once the BS6 norms kick in. Toyota thus has the Glanza, Yaris, Camry, Innova Crysta and the Fortuner in sale in India now.
Toyota debuted the Etios in India at the 2010 Auto Expo and the sedan soon went on sale late in 2010. The Liva followed soon in 2011 and then the Etios Cross came in 2014.Toyota India has sold 4,48,500 units of the Etios range in India until the end of its life-cycle and exported over 1.3 lakh units to other markets from India.
The Toyota Etios range was powered by a 1.4L diesel engine and it would have been quite expensive to update it to BS6 compliance. Also, with the pedestrian protection norms kicking in by October 2020, there would have had to be sheet metal changes on the Etios. All this would have made the Etios quite a bit more expensive and the volumes wouldn’t have made a good business case. With the Etios now gone, the Glanza is now the most affordable car in Toyota’s range.
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Toyota has also discontinued the Corolla Altis in India along with the Etios. The current-gen Corolla is being replaced by an all-new model globally but that won’t come to India. Even a Suzuki-badged version of the same was promised a couple of years ago but it was eventually dropped due to low sales of the sedan as customer preference shifted towards SUVs. Toyota has sold just 27,990 units of the Corolla from May 2014 to December 2019. That translated to an average of just 418 units a month. Such poor numbers did not encourage Toyota to forward this sedan in the BS6 era.
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Speaking on the occasion Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service, Toyota Kirloskar Motorsaid, “The month of March, 2020 witnessed the last batch production of the Etios series as well as the Corolla Altis, bringing an end to the iconic journeys both the models have enjoyed in India. A true representation of Toyota’s philosophy of offering Quality, Durability and Reliability, the launch of Etios in India was a significant landmark for us. Similarly, Corolla Altis also carved a niche for itself in the sedan segment. Both the models celebrated a successful run in the Indian market and it reflects in their sales performance.”
