While Toyota Kirloskar Motor will soon discontinue the Etios range and diesel-powered Corolla, it might see a spike in demand for Fortuner and Innova Crysta ahead of BSVI roll-out
The BSVI emission norms will kick in on April 1, 2019, post which, sale of any BSIV compliant vehicle in the country will be banned. With this, several carmakers have already started upgrading their BSVI-compliant models to achieve BSVI-compliance. Toyota Kirloskar Motor, however, will refrain from upgrading its entire range of cars.
It has already announced that it will totally discontinue the Toyota Etios range, which comprises the Etios sedan, Etios Liva hatchback and Etios Cross cross-hatch. This is being done as upgrading these cars to meet future emission and safety norms would be totally unfeasible. Already, these vehicles aren’t enjoying a high sales figure, which makes investing into upgrading them totally unjustifiable.
Furthermore, the company will even discontinue the diesel variant of the Toyota Etios Cross, which takes power from a version of the 1.4-litre diesel motor that even powers the Etios range. Fortuner and Innova Crysta, however, will get BSVI-compliant engines as the demand for both these vehicles is quite high and there makes no sense to discontinue their diesel variants.
However, it must be noted here that upgrading the Toyota Fortuner and Innova Crysta to achieve BSVI-compliance would be a costly affair, which could lead to price increment of 3-5 lakhs, depending on the model. The price increase will be due to the introduction of new filters and a revised exhaust system to cut down on the emissions.
While the price hike is sure to put off some of the prospective buyers, it may be noted that an increment in the price is inevitable. That said, the petrol models, which are nowhere as popular as their diesel counterparts, would see a much lesser price increase as upgrading them to achieve BSVI compliance is far less complicated.
Earlier, N Raja, Deputy Managing Director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, had said, “We are trying to educate our customers, particularly in fleet and employee transport, shared mobility, tell them the cost increase that is going to come and try to provide them solutions accordingly, either BS-IV or BS-VI, to suit their needs. They (fleet operators) would be better off buying BS IV than going for BS VI.“