Toyota Fortuner and Innova sales down in March 2020

- Toyota withheld 50 per cent of sales in March

- All BS4 stock successfully liquidated

- Etios, Corolla Altis production stopped

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) sold a total of 8,022 units of cars in March 2020. The carmaker had sold 13,662 cars in the same month last year, showing a considerable decline in sales.

Despite best-selling models like the Fortuner and Innova having a fairly good demand, TKM says it had withheld the sales by 50 per cent for the last month, just before the 21-day national lockdown was announced. This helped it lessen the burden on all its dealers. The carmaker sold 7,023 units of BS6 vehicles to its dealers (wholesales) in March 2020, thus also liquidating all its BS4 stocks even at the dealership level. Yet for comparison, a total of 12,818 Toyota cars were sold in the domestic market in March 2019.

The manufacturer also exported 999 units of the Etios series last month. This was the last batch of the Etios and Liva and production of these has been stopped. Even the Corolla Altis has been discontinued in India with the advent of BS6 emission norms. Still, the company has assured service and spare parts availability despite the discontinuation of these models. 

With the COVID-19 outbreak, TKM immediately shut down all its dealerships to curb the spread of the Coronovirus. Even the production at the Bidadi plant has been stopped temporarily in the wake of the pandemic. Relief measures like moratoriums and COVID packages have been introduced to assist in maintaining liquidity to improve cash flow. It's good to see how the company itself has taken various measures on its part to support the Government in this time of a global crisis.