How the Toyota Innova crossed a million sales in India: 10 infographics

Till date, the Innova has contributed 46% of Toyota’s sales in India and remains an anchor product for the brand.

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Toyota Innova enters the "Million Club".

Launched in 2005 and spanning over three generations, the Toyota Innova crossed the one million wholesale mark in February 2023:

With this new sales milestone, Innova has joined the "million" sales club in India, thus expanding its member group to 13 products. The most amazing thing is that all other products are under 4 metres in length (except the Maruti Dzire from 2008–2012), and the Innova is longer than 4.5 metres, has a much bigger engine, and is the most expensive in this prestigious club:

nnova started its journey with the tagline "All you desire," and it stayed true to itself. As an MUV, it was very spacious, with easy ingress and egress, having a usable third row seat for adults, upmarket interiors akin to sibling Corolla, optional captain seats in the second row, a large glasshouse, great AC for Indian driving conditions, stable highway manners, a great ride over broken surfaces thus reducing travel fatigue, a decent level of equipment in line with industry trend, and a decent drivetrain offering. Innova also broke the traditional Indian boxy MUV design theme by incorporating a kinematic design theme into the overall design language and having the sloping bonnet line, swept back headlamp, highly raked A-pillar, triangular tail lamps, and curvaceous rear drop line.

All these attributes made it an all-rounder premium car over and above the conventional MPV image. On top of all that, there were the hallmark bulletproof reliability and low maintenance costs of Toyota, which made it a very compelling proposition. Innova can put lakhs and lakhs of kilometres on the odometer and still stay young forever. As a result, its resale value never drops dramatically over time. This made Toyota increase Innova’s prices ever while still being able to sell more cars until 2018, thus defying the price elasticity of demand curve in the Indian passenger vehicle market. In a way, Innova redefined what premium means in the mass market category.

30% of sales in the first generation came from fleet operators, and the rest were in the personal segment. Since the second generation Innova became more expensive, the fleet segment mix got reduced to 5%. Innova has always maintained a premium taxi image for itself, and mere one, two, or three occupants in a taxi Innova are also a common sight. What it means is that customers book an Innova as a taxi for a comfortable ride and premium feel over the utilitarian aspect of a conventional MUV.

Innova, from the beginning, had a ladder-frame chassis and a RWD architecture, which Toyota called the IMV platform (Innovative Multipurpose Vehicle), which was shared with other products like the Fortuner and the Hilux. Innova came with a petrol and diesel drivetrain option. Demand for petrol-powered drivetrains has always been low due to their relatively low fuel efficiency. Toyota has also introduced a CNG kit in 2009 from Minda Auto Gas.

In 2010, Toyota upgraded the Innova to meet BS4 emission norms with the addition of an intercooler and an altered catalytic converter.

With the second generation of Innova (with the Crysta suffix), Toyota became way too generous with its drivetrain offering and introduced two different and more powerful diesel engines, as well as an automatic transmission option for both petrol and diesel. The price increase was also substantial.

With the start of the BS6 emission phase in April 2020, Toyota consolidated its offering and discontinued the powerful diesel option for the Innova.

With the third generation, Toyota is taking a big leap of faith by introducing the monocoque-chassis Innova with FWD architecture, and that too without a diesel engine. To address the need for higher fuel efficiency, Toyota has introduced a strong hybrid drivetrain, and this generation got the new Hycross suffix. Since petrol Innova till date has contributed only 1.6% of sales, the risk seems somewhat calculated, as Toyota for the first time in India has shown willingness to continue with older generation diesel Innova (Crysta), together with the new generation (Hycross), for a smoother transition rather than an abrupt and rude sales shock.

In its first generation, the highest sales were achieved in 2012 at 75,911 units. Lifetime's highest sales of 78,130 units were achieved later in 2018, when the Indian passenger vehicle market also touched its last peak. Since then, sales of Innova have dropped in line with the overall market and later due to a supply chain shortage in 2022, which limited sales just before the generational transition:

Despite being an expensive car, Innova broke into the top #10 ranking three times in its lifetime and maintained a very decent ranking till 2018.

Toyota product portfolio:

Till date, Innova has contributed 46% of Toyota’s sales in India and remains an anchor product for the brand.

Competition:

Over the years, Innova has maintained a healthy market share in the MUV segment, which is largely made up of lower-priced offerings. Since 2018, other products have expanded the segment. In recent times, Kia is the only player that has had success, with Carens positioned just below Innova:

The monthly average sales rate is still very impressive, as Innova is a premium offering in the Indian market. Others also tried but could not challenge Innova on its turf.

White space in the MUV segment:

The above infographic from 2022 shows that there is white space available in the Indian MUV segment for growth. It also clearly depicts that only a handful of manufacturers were cleverly able to capitalise on potential in the MUV segment. And Toyota is one of them, with Innova being the brand's breadwinner in India, along with the Fortuner in the SUV segment.

On a side note, I was expecting Toyota to have started this milestone celebration from the production line itself with something similar to below:

However, it seems their current marketing and PR team is not competent enough to pull off an incredible marketing campaign like they did with Aamir Khan way back when Innova was launched. In fact, the launches of the Hyryder and Innova Hycross were all over the place, whereas Maruti had a well-planned and executed launch for the Grand Vitara at the same time:

Having said all that, I am a big fan of the Toyota Innova. While travelling outstation, either on a business trip or a leisure trip within India, the most important thing I look for is the availability of an Innova as a taxi, as it makes the journey very comfortable. As Innova has made me believe since 2005, "when the going (roads) gets tough, the tough (Innova) get going". I am also sure that many of you must also be having your cherished moments with Innova, either as owners or as travellers like me.

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