The price of Toyota cars will go up by 4 per cent in January 2019 and the rising manufacturing cost is the reason behind the price hike
Toyota officially announced that the company is likely to increase the price of all models up to 4 per cent and it is effective from January 1, 2019. The Japanese manufacturer has already revealed in September that they are planning to announce a price hike but the decision was delayed for some time now.
The price of Toyota models was hiked for the last time was in January 2018. According to the company, the reason for the price hike is the continues pressure of increasing manufacturing cost, which is caused by rupee depreciation and it is a concern for most of the manufacturers in India.
The company has decided to pass on a part of the additional cost to customers and we can expect other manufacturers to follow the same path of Toyota but the profit of the company has increased in FY18 to Rs. 965 Crore. The revenue of Toyota dropped to Rs. 18,998 crore from Rs. 21,151 crore in FY17.
Toyota is focusing on profit rather than volume, which is the same philosophy followed by global management also as the company introduced strict cost-cutting in sourcing, manufacturing, selling and manufacturing. In India, the Fortuner and Innova are the bread and butter models for the company as they bring good volumes.
The Etios range is also performing really well but the recently introduced Yaris is the only model lagging as the sedan was priced at a premium and it was only available with a petrol engine option only, which limited the reach. The design of Yaris doesn’t look sporty or give the premium like some of its competitors.
The upcoming launch from the company is expected to be the new generation Camry and test mules have been already spotted in public roads. We will get the Asia-spec Camry model which focus more on luxury rather than sporty and it is based on the TNGA platform. The new Camry will retain the same engine lineup from the previous model and it is expected to undercut Honda Accord easily.