Toyota Indus Motors Fails To Sell A Single Toyota Prius In Pakistan!

0 555

To date, Toyota has sold over 5 million Prius’ worldwide, making it by far, the most successful hybrid car on the planet. In Pakistan, used imported Toyota Prius has been enjoying constant success now for over five years. To expand model lineup and to gain benefit from used Prius reception in the country, Toyota Indus launched the third-generation Prius in December 2013 for Pakistani Market. Upon launch, Toyota Indus announced that it will import it in the form of completely built units (CBUs) without expressing any plans to manufacture it in the future. Toyota Indus placed a price tag of PKR 4.5 million on the new Prius which received widespread criticism from both the public and the media as used imported Toyota Prius was being sold across the country for around PKR 2.5 million at the time of launch.

Also Read: Toyota Prius Buyer’s Guide

According to multiple reports at the time of its release in Pakistan, Toyota internally had a target of selling twenty-five Prius’ every year. A goal of twenty-five units seemed attainable back then, despite the price. However, now Parvez Ghias, CEO of Toyota Indus told BR that they have failed to sell a single unit of Prius out of the total seventeen which were imported, self-explaining its unchanged price since launch.

“We produced 17 Prius cars, not one of them got picked. Used Prius is considered better and cheaper than new Prius. Even within Toyota, there are versions of Prius, we are looking to see if there are any smaller car hybrids CBU that we could bring.”

It’s surprising to see that despite the weak sales (sorry no sale) of CBU Prius, Toyota is still interested in importing smaller hybrids into the country. However, it must be noted that Prius C/Aqua comes with a smaller 1.5-liter engine as opposed to Toyota Prius’ 1.8-liter, so it might be possible that Toyota is eyeing a tax reduction to introduce a cheaper hybrid in the country.

Have a look: Toyota Prius v. Honda Vezel: A Comparison Between Two Popular Hybrid Options In Pakistan

 

Google App Store App Store
No Comments
  1. Zuhaib Khan says

    They think we are fools yet they are the real Morons! What a great environment for the last so many years to introduce smaller displacement, fuel efficient cars to capitalize on yet they can`t think out of the box. i.e Corolla ke sales he kafi hain jee hamaray liyay. Fools! Self centred at that, Could have saved the people from buying used Kei cars and the resultant trail of foreign currency. They should have been working on lower price bracket cars once Corolla moved above 15 lacs. This isn`t just for Toyota. They are still thinking of getting a smaller hybrid. Bonga kahi ka :/

  2. Ahmed says

    Loosers!

  3. Waleed Ahmed says

    It’s AQUA, Not Alpha that have 1.5Ltr Hybrid Engine. The Prius Alpha is the Bigger ver. of prius with 1.8Ltr Engine, Same as standard Prius.
    Do Some proof reading before posting the article.

  4. aliqadri says

    I am willing to hear same kind of story after a year for Honda HRV

  5. Faisal ahmad says

    I HRV got super hot status. Sold more than the forecast.
    Wrong assessment

  6. CEO ka bara bhai says

    Mr. Ghias do you and your company feel any shame for producing extensively priced pieces of craps? I doubt. I think you take it as a pride 🙂

  7. Adnan Jabbar says

    Adan Ali,
    You have nailed this. But I would like to add a shocking news which I guess I experience for the first time hearing from Toyota Employee. We went to Toyota Dealership in Lahore and were asking about it’s XLi, GLi, Altis and Grande lineup. We found out from the employee that toyota is still using Probox 2003 Engine in XLI and GLI with a small module to make it a new brand. The engine has been discontinued in Japan and rest of the world but Toyota is still using it with a smug on their face here in Pakistan. Even India has stopped using it. I think an investigative research article should be written on that. Looking forward for your next piece.

    Regards.

  8. Husain says

    The reason is price basically. In this price one can buy an AUDI so throw money on a Toyota. BMW, Mercedes, Audi are a class of their own. Even LEXUS which is unheard off in Pakistan has not yet attained the level of these three German auto makers. And price thanks to Euro currency.

  9. Guest again says

    The Toyota employee was totally non-technical and (sorry to say) so are you.

    PakSuzuki has been using the F8B engine since 1978.

    Engine has its own name. Please share the name of the “2003” engine you are talking about.

    AFAWK, they were using the 2E carbureted 1300cc till 2000 (E100 chassis), it was called Corolla XE. E110 was never manufactured in Pakistan, even though wikipedia mentions it.

    Then they introduced E120 chassis in Pakistan in 2000, at that time the terminology of XLI, GLI, SE Saloon, was introduced. There used to be 2 engines, 1300cc was 2NZ-FE, SE Saloon had 1600cc 3ZZ-FE. In 2000, there was full page ad in DAWN about “Corolla-Z” but somehow the name never caught on in a manner similar to “reborn”. At that time the new Honda City was also launched and people spent most of their time lamenting its ugly tall-boy shape whereas the new Corolla also had the same styling.
    Afterwards Altis was introduced with 1800cc 1ZZ-FE in 2005, SE Saloon was discontinued.

    At the time of its launch, the 2NZ-FE was a highly advanced engine for Pakistani market. From the obsolete 2E coming in from the 1980s EE80 (Corolla 1984), Toyota Indus took a sudden leap into the future and actually gave Pakistani audience a modern engine which was designed in 1999 and introduced in Pakistan immediately around mid of 2000. It had distributorless EFI, VVT-i, DOHC, aluminium block, serpentine belt to run the auxiliaries, the noise was lower, was 16-valve. Comparatively, 2E was carburetted, had a distributor for ignition, SOHC, 12-valve, heavy cast-iron, multiple belts, was noisy (noisier than the 2NZ-FE).

    Compared with the offerings of other automakers in Pakistan at that time: Baleno had a very advanced engine but its waste-spark system was prone to burning of coils and also the backfire on CNG. Honda had a highly advanced engine in the newly launched 7th gen Civic VTi which had VTEC. In these terms, now Toyota and Honda’s offerings were equal. 2SZ took alterations like CNG very well. It was very robust and ran for hundreds of thousands of miles without requiring an overhaul. When an overhaul was needed, Pakistani technicians with their limited knowledge and tools were able to perform satisfactorily.

    2NZ was a nearly square

    Then Toyota introduced E140 series in 2008, the ZR-family of engines were developed, but the smallest engine was 1.6L. The NR-family was also developed, which had 1300cc options. NR is too advanced and once it needs an overhaul, it would be disposable because Pakistani craftsmen would not have the tools of training to tackle its head and valve seats.

    Indus continued to use the 2NZ-FE, (the only other option was 2SZ-FE, a 1300cc used commonly in Belta, 2SZ has a higher compression ratio and the same power output, the driving characteristics are same, but the SZ factory is in China, whereas NZ factory is in Japan, why would they go through the pain of sourcing something from somewhere else to provide you the same experience, plus the SZ is selling elsewhere, demand is high).
    The new car was heavier therefore many many users complained about low acceleration, despite the introduction of electric power steering which reduces the load on the engine. Then the E170 Corolla was introduced in Pakistan in 2014, the 1300cc variant still used the 2NZ-FE.

    Probox also uses the same engine. Many other cars from Toyota also use the same engine.

    In any case, your Toyota salesman has limited technical knowledge. The news is not shocking. The engine is not from 2003, it is from 1999. Rest of the world does not have a 1300cc Corolla since a few generations, so their Corolla is fitted with engines of different displacement but all the engines for each generation belong to the same family.
    And, what is “the small module to make it look like a new brand”? A piggyback? Or the talk is plain nonsense?

    In any case, 2NZ-FE is still a modern engine with the modern technologies, but these days it has pathetic fuel economy, they should consider replacing it.

  10. Guest says

    Absolutely, from his POV, he is providing at least something in a low-purchasing power economy where the government cannot protect them from street crime like mobile snatching and organized crime like kidnapping of their staff and also vehicle snatching, bhatta culture etc.

  11. Guest says

    What we read: “We produced 17 Prius cars”.

    What does he mean?

    He “produced” as in “production” by Indus?
    Or “produced” means “made available” imported ones.

  12. AbdulB1 says

    The writer fails to mention that it is not the manufacturers who are thugs but also our politicians who are thugs and placed huge taxes on car manufacturing and sales. Just look at the price of Japanese import without tax and you will easily understand whats wrong with Pakistani car industry.

Leave A Reply

Your email address will not be published.