Toyota Likely To Stop Diesel in India, Take Petrol Hybrid Route

Toyota has been tasting success ever since it launched the Innova in the Indian market and even when the Japanese maker launched the higher-priced Innova Crysta here, the success story of the maker continued. The large part of the sales of Innova comes from long-distance runners and hence they prefer the diesel option over the petrol engine. So naturally the brand offers the Innova Crysta with 2 diesel engine options in the market as of now. However, the recent tightening of the noose on diesel engines due to rising pollution concerns and upcoming emission norms has seen the makers scramble for other options for customers. Now there are reports coming in that the Japanese maker Toyota too may stop offering the diesel engine options on the Innova Crysta MPV in the next couple of years and may go on to offer petrol hybrid engines on their bestselling model in India. Although, there will be no change to the petrol line-up of Innova Crysta, the diesel may give way to a cleaner but comparably punchier petrol-hybrid option. This move is a part of Toyota's strategy to shift to cleaner fuels in all its markets.

The reason behind Toyota emphasizing on petrol-hybrid option is that it is looking ahead of the BS-VI emission norms and is gearing up for the even stricter norms which will come into force in 2022. Although the deadline is far off, the brand may benefit from the same as the 2022 rules will be stricter and the introduction of the hybrid option on Innova then will mean that the Indian market will have significantly higher acceptance of cleaner but higher priced cars.

Some sources talked about the likely decision and said,

“Diesel engine option for the next replacement of Innova seems off the cards right now. Toyota will develop the next generation of the Innova with the hybrid system and given the stricter emission and fuel efficiency norms this strategy makes perfect sense. Toyota’s portfolio is very diesel-heavy and this will also help Toyota push its hybrid technology in India”.

Talking about the upcoming Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) norms and Real-World Driving Emissions test which may come into force from 2022, HIS Markit's associate director Puneet Gupta stated,

“The product mix going forward will be important as it will decide the fate of many vehicles and fuel mix among these vehicles. It is expected that Toyota’s focus will be to push hybrids in India even in their bigger vehicles and try to exit diesel in mass segment vehicles. This is just to align to expectations of Indian consumers who want more mileage at a minimum additional price for their cars. Toyota like other vehicles manufacturers is expected to focus on gasoline and hybrid combination in their vehicles even in C-segment,”

The Innova Crysta in India comes with the option of a 2.4L diesel engine (143 Bhp and 343 Nm) and a 2.8L diesel engine (171 Bhp and 360 Nm). The petrol version of Innova Crysta is offered with a 2.7L engine rated to deliver 163 Bhp and 245 Nm. Meanwhile the Toyota Fortuner still comes with the same 2.8L turbocharged diesel engine and 2.7L petrol engine that are also found on Innova Crysta. So does this mean that the Fortuner may also see similar changes? Nothing clear can be said as of now for Innova Crysta, let alone Fortuner.