More than 50 percent of the bookings for Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder are for the strong hybrid variants
It seems Toyota India is riding high on the bookings of its latest midsize SUV, Urban Cruiser Hyryder, as more than 50 percent of the orders had been for the strong hybrid variants that claim an excellent fuel efficiency of 28 km/litre.
It has been revealed that once the sales of the strong hybrids pick up pace, the Japanese maker will eventually bring down their prices. So, maybe in an year or 2, we can notice a slash in the prices of all of Toyota’s strong hybrid cars.
The company believes emerging markets will learn to love its hybrids as long as the price is right. And even at the cost of the severe backlash from climate change lobbyists for not switching to BEVs, Toyota bets big on localising strong hybrid powertrains first.
The world’s biggest automaker wants first-time buyers in India to own strong hybrids as a first step towards large scale electrification.
By pitting the Urban Cruiser Hyryder directly against the popular Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos, Toyota might be planning a disruption to change the narrative from BEVs to hybrids in India at least for a few years from now.
If Toyota is able to pull off consistent sales from the Hyryder, strong hybrids will, indeed, take away the limelight from the BEVs which are generating maximum hype nowadays with many manufacturers jumping into the bandwagon.
The greatest advantage of Toyota would be its brand name and ‘reliability’ tag. For reference, the Urban Cruiser Hyryder comes with a warranty of 3 years or 1,00,000 km with an option of extension up to 5 years or 2,20,000 km.