Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Wednesday launched its 13th Toyota Driving School at the state capital with an aim to make the youths a responsible and a safe driver. The driving school will be managed by Toyota’s dealer partner in Bhubaneswar- Espirit Toyota. On the sidelines of the event, Orissa POST spoke to N Raja, Deputy Managing Director of TKM, learning more about their initiative and the impact of economic slowdown on the auto sector. Excerpts:
Take us through Toyota Driving School’s initiative.
We started the initiative in 2015 and it is our first driving school in Odisha. We opened it in Bhubaneswar aiming to set a benchmark in quality driving, training and ensuring that every learner portrays as a safety brand ambassador to enrich the safety culture across the city. We will look for opportunities to open such schools in Cuttack, Rourkela and other parts of the state. We target to set up 50 driving schools across the country. We have already trained 8,500 people across India.
How did the economic slowdown affect TKM in car sales in India?
Between the months, April-September the market was in a very bad shape. Our sale witnessed a dip of 30 per cent within this period. There were negative sales during these six months. However, the month of October brought some relief to us because of the festive season. It marked a rise in sale last month as it raised TKM from negative to positive mark.
What are the measures TKM took to arrest sales decline?
We have over 1 lakh Toyota customers and are going back to them for replacement and buy back of (older) cars. For new customers, we are updating them on our products. Glanza, a new model, has attracted new customers.
When will the slowdown come to a halt?
I feel that the worst phase of the economic slowdown is over. The months of August and September had a huge impact on the auto sector. In one month, the overall auto sales declined to 36 per cent but presently the slide is in the range of 20 per cent and will continue to range between 18-20 per cent by the end of the ongoing calendar year. However, I think the industry will revive gradually and we will catch up in 2020.
How has the car sales been in Odisha?
Odisha is very important market for TKM. We sell around 2,000 cars every year here. In fact, Odisha holds the best market share for our car Innova in the eastern region. We are also market leaders in the state for Innova and Fortuner.
The first product from the Toyota- Suzuki alliance was Glanza. What’s next and when?
We launched the Glanza this year. The upcoming model will be the Brezza, which is likely to be launched in 2020. Further, in line, we have Ciaz and Ertiga but we have not discussed the time period of launching.
