Toyota decides to get aggressive in India; eyes the affordable car segment

In order to capture a sizeable portion of the market, Toyota has decided to enter the affordable-car segment with Aygo – a sub-4 lakh hatchback

Toyota’s market share in India is nothing to be proud of. In fact, it’s not even sizable enough to be called ‘market share’. In a market that is ruled by compact hatchbacks in terms of numbers, Toyota has decided to bring in its contender in the form of Aygo – a car that Toyota has been developing with Daihatsu specifically for India. According to what we have heard and read, Toyota has imported three units of Aygo in India for R&D purposes. This is expected to be Toyota’s befitting reply to the likes of Maruti Alto K10, Chevrolet Beat, Datsun Go, Hyundai Eon and other such cars.

The car is a usual 5-door hatchback that has a 1-litre engine the produces a just-enough power of 68bhp and 95Nm of torque. The gearbox is a typical 5-speed manual. The challenge for Toyota, however, will be to keep the price low, because unless that happens, I do not see any threat to the Marutis and Hyundais in this category. This also means that Toyota will have to localise most of the parts including the engine and gearbox to keep the price low.

Well, the car looks pretty futuristic to us in the pictures and we do not see any reason why it won’t do well in India if equipped generously with features, and provides more rupee per rupee to the customers.