Even though Honda does not have many products in its portfolio, it enjoys one of the best positions in the Indian automotive industry, and this is mainly due to its position in the segments which really matter and the C-segment is one of them. Honda currently rules the C-segment with the City selling upto 7000 units every month. The C-segment is one of the largest segments in the Indian automotive industry with almost all major mass-market manufacturers having their presence in this segment and the only manufacturer missing out is Japanese automotive giant Toyota.
Toyota’s C-segment sedan (codenamed the Toyota C or Toyota Core) – FrontView
Toyota has the Etios competing in the smaller compact sedan segment and just after that, it has the Corolla Altis and there is a huge price gap between the top-of-the-line Etios and the base model Corolla Altis and this gap is really giving its competitors an advantage.
The boffins at Toyota had noticed this and wanted to do something about it, and hence thought of launching the Vios in India. The Toyota Vios is Toyota’s main product in the Asia-Pacific region C-segment and Toyota was considering the launch of the Vios in India to fill the gap between the Etios and the Corolla Altis, but now it seems as if the Vios will not be coming to India after all.
Toyota’s C-segment sedan (codenamed the Toyota C or Toyota Core) – RearView
The engineers at Toyota felt that launching the Vios in India would be a time consuming and money consuming process as they would have to re-engineer the car for the Indian market, and felt that, launching an Etios based sedan instead would be more profitable and easier to develop than re-enginnering the Vios to suit Indian conditions.
Toyota will be launching the Etios based sedan with the name Etios-C or Etios Core and will most probably make use of the 1.4-litre engine currently being used in the Etios and Etios liva, but will mostly be higher on power levels.
The new sedan will be launched by mid-2016.
To read more on Toyota India, Click here
Also see – Next-gen Toyota Etios on the works, launch slated for late-2015
Source – Economic Times
Image Credit – Car and Driver
