Toyota has decided to keep diesel engines alive after BS6 kicks in.
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is planning to keep its diesel engines alive even when the industry trend says the opposite. BS6 norms will be kicking in from 1st April 2020 and are set to make diesel cars significantly pricier and hence, other manufacturers are shying away from them for the future. Manufacturers like Mauti Suzuki have already announced plans to phase out diesel engines in most of its cars and Tata Motors is also thinking in the same line.
Currently, TKM is selling cars in diesel-petrol ratio of 82:18 in commercial sector and at about 50:50 ratio in the passenger sector. Most of the company’s sales come from the Fortuner SUV and Innova MPV, both of them are hugely dependent on diesel engines. To fulfil this demand in the future, the company has invested in a new plant which is capable of manufacturing BS6 engines at a low cost. This was done under the ‘Make in India’ incentive.
The company believes that they still have a strong demand for diesel engines and want to continue making them until the new technologies mature and settle down in the country. The company is closely monitoring the customer needs and demands along with the infrastructure available to launch and develop suitable technologies.
Even though the company has various types of products which use alternate sources of energy like electric or fuel cell vehicles in the international markets, the company is pushing for hybrid vehicles for India. Due to the multitude of shared components between EV and hybrid cars, the company will be able to transition to pure EV easily and at minimal cost. The company also wants the government to push for hybrid vehicles as the infrastructure is simply not ready for pure EV yet.
Toyota Diesel Engines
– The company has decided to keep diesel engines alive post the introduction of BS6
– The company has invested in a plant to manufacture BS6 engines
– Will be pushing for hybrid vehicles instead of pure EV
Source – ETAuto.com
