Toyota has today revealed its Etios Concept at the New Delhi Motor Show, showcasing its plans for a new small car aimed squarely at emerging markets.
Toyota’s engineers have designed two variants, a hatchback and a saloon, the former of which will be equipped with a 1,5-litre doch petrol engine and the latter a 1,2-litre unit. Performance figures have not yet been released. Despite its resemblance to the Yaris, Toyota has stressed that the Etios is underpinned by an all-new platform. Both models are reported to be 90 percent production-ready with an on-sale date pegged for the end of 2010.
Company employees were tasked with speaking to customers across the country in order to best ascertain what they considered most important in a family car. As such, their findings resulted in the Etios being designed with the provision of “a spacious interior…and abundant storage space” in mind.
“I visited many Indian cities and homes to learn the market and to hear from the consumer directly,” said Yoshinori Noritake, chief engineer for the Etios project. But while one of the other provisos leveled at the Etios is affordability, its projected selling price of roughly R80 000 means that it will not be going head-to-head with the cheap-as-chips Tata Nano. Toyota has, however, stressed that it has worked hard to keep costs down, resulting in such features as a hard, but durable interior, basic seats, limited soundproofing and a single windscreen wiper.
The main rival Toyota has in mind is Suzuki, whose Swift-based Maruti Swift Dzire has proven very popular on the Indian market. According to Toyota, production of the Etios will be gradually ramped up in order assure improved quality – an aspect of many Indian-built cars that has come in for a great deal of criticism as of late. It also allows the Japanese firm to focus on providing an interior that is larger, and of better quality, than that of the Dzire. Even so, the company has projected initial sales of 70 000 units in its first year of production.
Other Indian-built rivals also occupying the budget compact saloon segment include the Renault Logan, Tata Indica and Ford Ikon. From the end of 2010, the Etios is expected to be offered in such markets as India, Russian and South America, and it is likely to be built at Toyota’s new Indian factory from late 2010, with a production facility earmarked for Brazil the following year.
Currently, Toyota has no plans to sell the Etios in Europe or South Africa. It could, however, be argued that the presence of its aforementioned rivals (Ikon, Indica, Logan) on the local marketplace could build a case for its introduction here. Suzuki is also planning to release a saloon version of its SX-4 in South Africa towards the middle of next year, although SX-4 does occupy a more premium niche than the budget-firendly models mentioned here. It does, however, point to the growing popularity of compact saloons in a number of markets – including our own.
The gap in Toyota’s product line up that was left by the departure of the Tazz has not been filled with a cheap and simple entry-level offering, but this model’s potential to cannibalise Yaris sales will, no doubt, be on the minds of local Toyota executives…we’ll just have to wait and see.