I was privileged to be a part of the Toyota Etios Q class world-wide launch in Bangalore at Bangalore Palace on 1st of December 2010. Toyota Kirloskar Motor launched the Etios Sedan on that day, marking the company’s entry into the highly competitive B segment in India. The special attraction of this launch was the fact that this car has been developed in India specifically for Indian customers, true to it’s motto ‘World First, India First, My First’!
Mr. Akio Toyoda, President and Representative Director, Toyota Motor Corporation; was personally present in Bangalore to launch the Toyota Etios Sedan. He started his speech narrating the lesser known fact that his great-grandfather Mr. Sakichi Toyoda had invented weaving machines (that incorporated important advances in automation) in the 1920’s which were imported into India. He related this tale to the fact that now more than eighty years later, we are celebrating the new arrival of Toyota technology in India. He emphasized on the fact that India has always been a part of Toyota since establishing Toyota Kirloskar Motor in 1997, Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts in 2002 and the Toyota Technical Training Institute in Bangalore in 2007. The graduates of the Toyota Technical Training Institute, first batch which passed out in July 2010, are going to help produce the Etios in Bidadi, a suburb of Bangalore.
Mr. Akio Toyoda also mentioned that at Toyota they believe in the motto “the road makes the car”. Hence Etios is the product of real world testing on roads throughout India – Etios has been driven across more than 200,000 KMs of Indian roads from the Himalayan foothills in the north to the southern tip of the Indian peninsula and from Kolkata in the east to Mumbai in the west!
Mr. Toyoda then invited Mr. Yoshinori Noritake, the chief engineer of the development project, to talk about the 5 year long effort of developing the Etios which included a lot of knowledge transfer between Toyota offices in Japan and India.
After Mr. Noritake was done talking about the development of Etios in India, everyone was eagerly waiting for Mr. Sandeep Singh, the deputy managing director for marketing at Toyota Kirloskar Motor, to announce the much awaited information about the price of the Toyota Etios Sedan and the date for the launch of the Toyota Etios hatchback named as Toyota Etios Liva.
Mr. Sandeep Singh announced to thunderous applause that the Toyota Etios Sedan is priced under Rs.5 lakhs! He elaborated on this fact by saying that Etios Sedan will be available in 4 variants, J, G, V and VX which are competitively priced between Rs.4,96,000 and Rs.6,86,500 (ex-showroom Delhi). He emphasized on the product highlights which include innovation styling, best-in-class cabin and luggage space, superior comfort and impressive fuel efficiency. He mentioned that booking for Toyota Etios Sedan starts from Dec 1st onwards across India and customers can book it by paying booking amount of just Rs.50,000 and deliveries will start from Jan 2011 onwards. He also mentioned that the Hatchback version ‘Toyota Etios Liva’ will go on sale from April 2011!
I’m thankful to Mr. Jiveshdeep Singh Sandhu, Deputy Manager – Marketing Division, for giving me this wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Toyota Etios launch and his team, who did wonderful arrangements at the venue which was required for a world-class event!