Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) plans smooth run out of BS-IV vehicle inventory

In line with its customer first philosophy, Toyota Kirloskar Motor in order to support dealer partners has been gradually liquidating BS-IV stocks across India to maintain a lean inventory and not put any excess burden on dealerships before the shift to BS-VI in April 2020. Thanks to the customers support the stocks of BS-IV has been steadily decreasing without offering huge discounts/offers for its products.

Despite the slowdown, TKM retail sales in the month of December 2019 is nearly 45% more than the wholesales (sold to dealers). The company continues to have high customer demand for its BS-IV products since the festive season.

Commenting on the monthly sales, Mr. Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Service, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said, "We are consciously lowering the volumes sold to dealers to ensure a smooth transition to BS-VI by April 2020 and ensure that there is no pending BS-IV inventory at dealerships by 30th March 2020, which will be unsaleable post the transition. We are well prepared for the BS-VI transition.

We are happy that there has been a continued positive retail sales momentum despite the overall slowdown in the industry. We currently don't cater to the entire market with our products, although the segments we represent have shown de-growth of around 22 percent, yet our de-growth as compared to the segment has been much lesser. Thanks to our valued customers for their trust and confidence, we are happy to note that our main products (Innova and Fortuner) continue to hold their segment leadership.

Further to the Toyota-Suzuki alliance, we launched Toyota Glanza, earlier this year. Despite the industry slowdown resulting weaker domestic sales, Toyota Glanza sales showed a positive momentum; helping us reach out to the millennial young generation, targeting the 'First time Toyota Buyers. We are glad to have already sold around 18000 units of Glanza since its launch in June 2019.

The Toyota Glanza is already a BS-VI compliant vehicle, we have started bookings for BS-VI petrol Yaris. We will soon open bookings for other BS-VI diesel compliant models, so as to ensure that the right products reach our customers at the right time and price. In terms of diesel vehicles, we are ready with the product and are waiting for BS-VI fuel to be made available."

Commenting on 2020 outlook, Mr. Soni Said "In the coming year, we would continue to sustain our volumes as 2019. Since we have leadership in the segments we operate in, we would grow at the same pace as the market growth. We will keep working towards introducing innovations and newer technologies in our models keeping in mind the changing needs of Indian customers.

We hope customers will continue to appreciate Toyota products and retain their loyalty to the brand. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year!"

TKM sold a total of 6544 units to its dealers (wholesales) in the domestic market in the month of December 2019. The company exported 1225 units of the Etios series this month thus clocking a total of 7769 units. Toyota Kirloskar Motor sold a total of 11836 units in the domestic market in the same period last year. The company exported 653 units of the Etios series in December 2018.