Toyota Fortuner bookings close again due to order backlog

Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) has again closed its fresh bookings due to order backlog of 5,000 units for Sports Utility Vehicle(SUV). In August ,the company re-opened the bookings after suspending it in January due to huge order backlog. Hiroshi Nakagava the MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motors Stated that the company is currently not accepting the fresh bookings of Toyota Fortuner due to a huge backlog and said it would take around five to six months to cover the backlog. The hike in demand of this vehicle is major cause for the backlog. Toyota Fortuner comes in 3.0 litre diesel engine. Since its launching, the volume of demand for this car has been very high.

Toyota has increased its production from 500 units to 1000 units in the last couple of months. Toyota's other models Toyota Corolla Altis and most selling MUV (Multi Utility Vehicle) Toyota Innova combined have two months order backlog of 2,000 units which they expect to cover in next two months.

Toyota manufactures Toyota Innova, Toyota Fortuner and Toyota Corolla Altis at its first plant in Bangalore and has manufacturing capacity of 70,000 to 8,0000 units annually. Nagakava stated that they have no plans to increase the volume of production at its first plant in Bangalore. Toyota is planning to launch Toyota Etios on December 1 with the expectation of capturing a major share in the domestic market. The production of Etios will take place in the second plant in Bangalore where they have an initial capacity of 70,000 units per annum. In total, Toyota has capacity to manufacture 1,50,000 units from both the plants. The sedan and hatchback models will come in petrol engine.The sedan engine capacity will be of 1.5 litre and for hatchback, the engine capacity will be of 1. 2 litre. The booking of Toyota Etios is expected to be open in a week's time and again Toyota is expecting to receive a healthy response from its buyers. Nagakawa conveyed that the company is planning to set up an engine and transmission plant near the existing plants to cater to Toyota Etios models and by 2012 the company is expecting to begin the sourcing of Toyota Etios Engine in India from Toyota Kirloskar Auto Parts (TKAP).

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