Innova Crysta drives Toyota Kirloskar Motor to register first month of growth in 2016

Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the Indian subsidiary of Japanese car-maker Toyota, has registered its first month of growth this year. TKM sold a total of 12,200 units in the domestic market in May, registering a growth of 6 percent over the 11,511 units in May 2015. The growth has been registered after several months of decline.

The new Innova, now called the Innova Crysta, is apparently behind the surge in sales. TKM launched the Innova Crysta on May 13 for a starting price of Rs. 13,83,677, ex-showroom Mumbai. Despite the MPV segment feeling the pressure with new arrivals in the compact SUV segment, the Innova Crysta has registered over 20,000 bookings so far.

"We launched the Innova Crysta this month and have received an overwhelming response from our customers. The Innova Crysta has already received close to 20,000 booking orders within a month of its launch. We would like to thank our customers for placing their trust in our products," said N Raja, director  and senior vice-president of sales and marketing at TKM, in a statement.

Despite this, TKM is one of the worst-affected car-makers post the registration ban on diesel vehicles of over 2,000cc capacity in Delhi and NCR. "Both the Innova and Fortuner are affected due to the diesel vehicle ban ordered by the Supreme Court. The percentage loss of sales of both models put together is 7 percent until now," N Raja was quoted by NDTV Auto as saying.

The company now plans to launch a petrol-powered Innova Crysta to beat the ban. The petrol unit is rumoured to be a 2.7-litre engine made specially for India, and the market launch of an Innova Crysta equipped with this engine can be expected during the festive season.