Toyota Yaris, Vios not for India, yet

There is bad news for Indian car enthusiasts who waited eagerly for the arrival of Toyota Yaris and Vios.

Toyota's managing director Hiroshi Nakagawa recently told a car portal, "Cars like the Yaris or Vios are not suitable for the Indian market. They cater to certain specific markets like Thailand. It's not meant for India. However, for the Indian market, we have Etios. There is no hatchback planned below or above this. We are also employing the Kaizen methodology to improve our production process."

While Yaris is a hatchback, Vios is its sedan version. Toyota Yaris, sometimes called Vitz is a 3 and 5-door hatchback. On the other hand Toyota Vios is a 4-door sub-compact sedan introduced in 2003.

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The Vios is pegged below Toyota Corolla and Toyota Camry in the other markets. However, Toyota just launched the much awaited diesel version of Corolla Altis and all eyes are now on the eagerly awaited hatchback Toyota Etios.

The company has lot of expectations with this model and hopes that it would amount for about 50 per cent of its sales or more.

"Next year, we are confident that the total sales of the company will be 150,000 units, out of which we expect the Etios to be around 67,000-70,000 units," says Toyota Kirloskar Motor deputy managing director (marketing) Sandeep Singh.

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TKM would be launching the car with 1.2 litre and 1.5 litre petrol units along with the diesel variant. The notchback segment of the car is expected to be launched before the hatchback by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

Toyota Etios is expected to have a DOHC 16-valve engine with a 1200cc displacement.

It is now to be seen how well Toyota Etios is able to beat the competition it has from cars like Volkswagen Polo, Fiat Punto and Honda Jazz. In 2011, Honda will launch its small car that would lock horns with the Etios.

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