Toyota to introduce Lexus in India? – Etios Cross priced Rs. 5.76 lakhs, tackles Ford Eco Sport and Renault Duster

Toyota is likely to introduce its luxury car making sub brand ‘Lexus’ into the Indian market soon, As per the information from TOI. As demand for the luxury car models in India is increasing at rapid speeds and there is no surprise in hearing the same from Toyota. Other leading luxury car making giants such as BMW, Mercedes Benz and Audi have already went successful in India and Lexus is going to join the party soon.

For the promotion of the recent launches such as Etios Liva and Etios Cross, Toyota has already stated some initiatives. Toyota is working very hard to make their products reach smaller cities of India and also looking forward to adopt new segments. In order to boost up the sales in the sedan segment, Toyota has launched the brand new edition of the Corolla Altis this Monday. The major drawback which is pulling back Toyota from launching the luxury car sub brand into the Indian market is the burden of heavy import duties.

Mr. Naomi Ishii, the Managing Director for Toyota Kirloskar Motor has stated in connection with the introduction of Lexus in India “The Etios and Liva have bigger potential in non mega cities. SO there is a gap and we are working on this to acquire more customers. I think the premium market size is 30000 – 40000 units annually and all the three German friends, Mercedes, BMW and Audi are doing very well. Looking at this, I feel that we need Lexus here. We are studying how to tackle these challenges. We have very strong interest to bring the brand in India but again I want to be a little bit different from the existing German three. To just follow the competitors’ way is not the Toyota Way”.

The brand new edition of the Etios Cross comes with three distinct engine options in India and the manufacturer is offering four variants of the model. The base petrol variant of the model comes powered with a 1.2 litre petrol engine that generates 79 bhp power at the peak along with 104 Nm of torque. Another petrol variant of the model comes equipped with a 1.5 litre petrol engine which produces 89 bhp at the peak along with 132 Nm of torque. The diesel version of the model gets fitted with a 1.4 litre diesel engine that generates around 67 bhp at the peak along with 170 Nm of torque. Toyota is offering the brand new Etios Cross for a starting price of Rs. 5.76 lakhs only.

[Source: Car Dekho, Financial Express]