Is Innova Crysta the most successful car in India right now?

There is no secret that the Innova is Toyota’s largest money spinner. But where does it stand in the larger scheme of things? What it means for Toyota and could it be the most successful model for any car manufacturer in the country, not just Toyota? Here’s an insight.

We spoke to N Raja recently, Director and Senior Vice-President (Sales & Marketing) at Toyota Kirloskar Motor about the unprecedented success of the Innova because we couldn’t wrap our heads around the fact that a MPV that is priced a couple of lakh rupees higher than its predecessor, is in fact selling much more than it ever has. To this, Raja said, “We thought initially that orders may slow down six months down the line but even now, we have a one and half month waiting period.”

In terms of volumes, the Innova sells about 7000-7500 units per month. That’s about 4-5 percent of car sales in India every month. To this, Raja said, “If you do the equivalent monetary value transaction of it, it is as high as 14-15 per cent.” This got us thinking. Could the Innova Crysta be the most successful four-wheeler in India right now?

We look at the most basic way of calculating a turnover – finding the average price per car and divide it by average sales in the past six months. Carmakers do not give out break ups in terms of variant sales so let’s assume the average price is exactly halfway through the price range. These are ex-showroom Delhi prices.

Innova Crysta

Average price:  Rs 17.33 lakh

Six month average sales: 7,503 units

Total turnover = Rs 1,300.27 crore

Swift Dzire

Average price: Rs 6.93 lakh

Six month average sales: 17,361 units

Total turnover: Rs 1,203.12 crore

Maruti Alto

Average price: Rs 3.28 lakh

Six month average sales: 20,498.5 units

Total turnover: Rs 672. 35 crore

As you can see, the Innova Crysta’s turnover for Toyota is higher than the country’s top selling cars, the Alto and the Dzire. The Dzire runs the Innova close but the Alto turnover is only about half of what the big MPV makes for Toyota. Sure this isn’t exactly accurate because we don’t know the percentage sales of top trims vis-à-vis the mid and base trims but our basic math tells us that the Innova is the most successful model for any carmaker this year. If the Innova Crysta is 14-15 per cent of the market in terms of value, the Alto is at about 7 per cent.