Carmaker Toyota is working on a petrol variant of its multi-purpose vehicle Innova after the company’s sales took a hit following a ban on registration of diesel cars with 2,000cc and above engines in Delhi-NCR.
“Delhi-NCR is the biggest market among other regions of the country. Since sales of Innova and Fortuner have stopped there, there will be considerable impact in overall sales,” VP of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Sailesh Shetty told the news agency on the sidelines of the launch of Innova Crysta here.
“last year, we had sold 1.39 lakh cars in the country. This year, the sales figure will be in that region,” Shetty said on Friday.
He further said, “We are meeting all the emission norms as per Government regulations... Diesel is a good fuel and we hope that the ban will be lifted some day. However, we are working on the petrol engine of Innova, the highest selling MPV in the country”.
He said that Toyota had not been able to sell any Innova or Fortuner vehicles in Delhi NCR since the ban was imposed since December-end.
Sales of MPVs in India was between 8,000 to 9,000 units per month, he said, adding that 7 per cent of the sales has been hit in Delhi-NCR following the ban.
The earlier version of Innova would be phased out which would be replaced by Innova Crysta.
In the meantime, the new vehicle saw a good response from consumers on the first day of its launch.
“Over 60 per cent of the 15,000 bookings we have received so far are for the automatic version that too of the top-end model,” Toyota Kirloskar Motor vice chairman Shekar Vishwanathan told reporters after launching the new MPV in Mumbai.