With over 21,000 bookings for Toyota Motor Corporation's Etios car in over one-and-a-half months of its launch, industry observers see a rearrangement of market share in the entry-level car segment. The car, being delivered to clients from December, 2010, has a waiting period of seven months - the highest in this category. Maruti Suzuki DZire, which has a waiting period of 2-3 months, accounts for one out of every two cars sold in the entry-level sedan section (A3-), saw sales slide by around 1,000 vehicles final month. Tata Motors, which straddles the space with the Indigo range, also saw sales dip to 5,234 vehicles in December.
This is the lowest sales figure that the company has registered for the Indigo range in last year. Maruti, on an average, sells 9,000-9,500 Dzire vehicles and another 1800-2300 vehicles of SX4 in the mid-size segment (A3) on a monthly basis. In December, the company's sales in the
A3 segment fell to 9,362 vehicles, compared with the 11,115 vehicles that Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) had sold a month earlier.
A senior company executive, however, attributed the drop to constraints in production capacity. We sell as many Dzire cars as we produce. There is a waiting catalog on the product. Even this month, the bookings for Maruti Suzuki Dzire have been good. The waiting period for the DZire is around two to three months. An industry expert said, With Toyota coming in, competition is bound to blaze in the space.
Toyota Etios has a good brand image in the country. Toyota Etios is an aspirational product. It is probable to sell well in India. Toyota Etios, which is priced between Rs4.96 lakh and Rs6.86 lakh, was launched in December previous year. The company developed the Etios platform exclusively for the Indian market where it hopes to dual sales to 140,000 vehicles in the course of year 2011.
The Etios is pitted against the likes of Maruti Suzuki DZire, Mahindra Logan, Hyundai Accent and Tata Indigo. Around 18700 vehicles are sold in the
A3- category every month.
According to informations, the country's biggest car manufacturer is working on introducing a shorter version of sedan DZire to cash in on cuts in excise duty. Frost & Sullivan Senior Director (automotive practice) V C Ramakrishnan added, Till at the present there have largely been two volume players in the A3-segment. Now with Toyota Etios coming in, we would definitely see a rearrangement of market shares in the category. Pricewaterhouse Coopers Leader (automotive practice) Abdul Majeed said, commonly when the waiting period is more, bookings slide. We have to see how the vehicle does over the next three months.
According to government regulations, a small car (less than four metres in
length) is likely to an excise duty of 10%, compared to the 22 % duty levied on larger cars. By making the DZire small cars, MSIL would be able to avail of benefits in excise duty and also price the DZire aggressively.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")