Toyota is ramping up its marketing campaigns and intends to launch diesel variant of Toyota Corolla Altis in India soon. Indian market is extremely diesel friendly and nearly every car maker in India generates volume sales though diesel variants. Ankush Arora, the sales and marketing Head for General Motors in India mentioned that the share of diesel version in the premium sedan segment has been rising steadily, especially after the launch of Cruze. Sandeep Singh, deputy MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, believes that the monthly sales average of Corolla Altis will increase from 800 to 1100 units.
The Toyota Corolla Altis diesel is expected to be powered by a 4-cylinder common rail 1.4 liter D-4D engine that comes with a VGT (Variable geometry turbocharger). The small and efficient diesel wouldn’t exactly be a scorcher as it would produce only 89 hp and 190 Nm of torque.
There are already many options for cars in the segment like Honda Civic, Skoda Laura, Volkswagen Jetta that are available in the range of Rs. 10 to Rs. 15 lakh. So the latest invention will suffer a tough competition in market to sustain. Prices for the Corolla Altis diesel are expected to start at about 12.75 lakh Rupees for the G variant and could go up to 15 lakhs for the VL variant.
