Toyota Yaris Taxi Variant to Become a Premium Altenative to Etios in Fleet Market

Toyota has discontinued a lot of products from its lineup as they failed to comply with the new stringent emission norms. The manufacturer is now left with just 5 products on sale, namely Yaris, Innova Crysta, Fortuner, Camry and Vellfire. Out of all the discontinued products, the Etios sedan was the highest selling car of the lot. It has left a big void in the B-segment commercial space. The Etios was quite popular across fleet operators and cab aggregators for space and ride quality it offered. Let’s also not forget the reliability that comes with a Toyota badge. To fill that very void, the carmaker is now planning to launch a commercial-spec Yaris in the country.

The taxi-spec Toyota Yaris will come with steel wheels, black ORVMs, and black door handles.

The taxi-spec Yaris will help the Japanese carmaker in improving the sales volume by offering a rather premium option to the fleet operators who have been planning to upgrade from the Etios or the Maruti Dzire Tour. On this note, Naveen Soni, Senior Vice President, Sales and Customer Service, Toyota Kirloskar Motor quoted, “Maybe make it more attractive for the taxi customer; because while the Etios is not there, we have the Yaris to offer for that customer and a specced-down Yaris is in the pipeline”.

Currently, the Yaris is offered with a petrol engine only. It displaces 1500 cubic centimetres to produce a peak power output of 107 HP at 6,000 RPM and max. torque of 140 Nm at 4,200 RPM. It is offered with 2 gearbox options – a 6-speed manual and a seven-step CVT automatic. It returns an ARAI-rated fuel efficiency figure of 17.1 kmpl and 17.8 kmpl with a manual and automatic gearbox, respectively.

Toyota Yaris was recently updated to comply with the BSVI emission norms.

The taxi-spec Toyota Yaris will also do with this same engine but with a manual transmission only. However, it is expected to come with a company-fitted CNG kit as well. It will comply with the AIS-140 (Automotive Industry Standard) norms. Therefore, it will feature an AIS-140 certified VLTD (vehicle location and tracking device), SOS button, rear doors without child safety lock, and an electronically limited top speed of just 80 kmph. Yaris is offered with 6-airbags as standard but the commercial-spec car might feature only two in the front.

Source: Autocar