Toyota sold just 421 units of Yaris last month and the sedan has become the lowest selling model in its segment
Toyota introduced Yaris with great expectation in April and initial response for the sedan was good, but the sales have been coming down since last few months and for the time, both Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Vento outsold Yaris as it has become the lowest selling model in its segment.
One of the reasons for low sales is because of premium pricing from Toyota and the design of Yaris is not sporty like Verna or misses out the premium feel of City. Toyota is offering lots of safety kit along with an automatic gearbox option from base variants. The Yaris is only available with a petrol engine, which limits the sedan reach.
| S. NO. | MODEL | OCT’18 |
| 1 | MARUTI CIAZ | 3892 |
| 2 | HONDA CITY | 3612 |
| 3 | HYUNDAI VERNA | 3301 |
| 4 | SKODA RAPID | 1205 |
| 5 | VOLKSWAGEN VENTO | 480 |
| 6 | TOYOTA YARIS | 421 |
On the other hands, the aggressive marketing and limited edition models are helping sales of Skoda Rapid and Volkswagen Vento, both these sedans are the only products in the C-Segment to register positive growth while Ciaz, City and Verna all recorded negative growth, but the fight for the top spot is close between these three models.
Skoda has managed to sell 1205 units of Rapid compared to 1086 units same month last year and registered 11 per cent YoY growth. The company is running aggressive finance schemes along with lots of discounts offers last month to push the sedan. The Rapid is available in both diesel and petrol engines with the option of manual and automatic transmission.
Volkswagen sold 480 units of Vento last month compared to 411 units in October 2017 and the German sedan registered 17 per cent YoY growth. For the last six month, the sales of Vento is hovering around 450-500 units per month but the Skoda Rapid sales have been rising constantly in the same period.
The underpinning of both these models are same but the exterior design of Rapid is more appealing and it is one of the reason for its popularity along with special edition models. The only option for Toyota to improve sales of Yaris is to revise price and improve features list to make the sedan more attractive for prospective customers.