While only 7 percent of Fronx sales are the turbo, Toyota believes its customers will choose differently.
Toyota launched the Taisor, their version of the Maruti Suzuki Fronx and has offered it with the CNG, the regular as well as the turbo direct injection petrol engines. This despite the Turbo selling in very small numbers; earlier this year Maruti said sales of the turbo Fronx accounted for only 7 percent of total sales.
However Toyota believes that the Turbo gasoline direct injection (GDi) version has potential with Toyota. Speaking to Autocar India at the side lines of the launch Manohar Sabri Group head customer service at Toyota Kirloskar Motor said ‘More than getting into specifics I can say we believe the 1 liter turbo will see the majority of sales’
This would be a marked shift from the pattern Maruti Suzuki are seeing with the Fronx, however Sabri believes that the customers perception and wants from the Toyota brand are more towards performance and strong engines, pointing to the Fortuner as one example. Also adding that ‘they would want mileage, this being an entry segment but performance would be a very important criteria’
Indeed if this proves to be the case, the increased sales would come as some relief to Maruti Suzuki who have invested in localising and producing this engine here and are yet to see significant sales, this being offered soley on the Fronx. Earlier the engine was imported and briefly offered on the Baleno RS however that too did not fare well. Thus it will be interesting to see if Toyota does manage an increase in sales of the turbo version.
Also see:
Maruti Fronx gets discounts of up to Rs 68,000 this April
Maruti Fronx crosses 1 lakh unit sales milestone