Toyota India stops Fortuner bookings

A bad news for SUV enthusiasts who are planning to become the proud owner of India's most popular luxury SUV Toyota Fortuner, as company has decided to stop the bookings of this vehicle in India, in a bid to clear the whooping backlog and catch-up with the rising demand. The initial production of 400 units per month has been increased to 1,000 units, still company is not able to meet the demand. company is analysing the situation and will take steps to accept bookings, said Sailesh Shetty, general manager (sales) Toyota Kirloskar.

According to Mr Shetty, in the initial 8 days of the launch of Fortuner in India, there was demand for more than 5000 units and currently the delivery period has reached-up to 6 months. He also cleared the rumors about expected import of Fortuner by saying that there is no proposal to source vehicles from some other country as the tax component is as high as 106 per cent on imported vehicles. The Fortuner model was rolled-out in India in August 2009, and  company has manged to sell 6,500 units of this vehicle in the country, so far. 

The company has recently announced that it will enhance its dealer ship base in India to 150 by the end of this year, from existing 99 dealers, to provide a good market reach to its upcoming compact hatchback Toyota Etios in the country. Company is also aiming to acquire the 10 percent market share in the Indian auto-market by year 2015, from existing 3 percent.

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