Toyota India "exploring options" for petrol Innova and Fortuner - Report

The Innova was initially launched in India with a petrol engine option.

According to a report on the Economic Times, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) is considering launching petrol variants of the Innova and Fortuner, post a Supreme Court ruling last month which banned the sale of diesel vehicles with engine capacities greater than 2,000 cc in NCR for the next three months.

Currently, both the Innova and Fortuner make use of a 2.5-liter diesel engine or a 3.0-liter diesel engine, and hence their sale in NCR is prohibited. TKM sold 91,588 vehicles in the April-November 2015 period and the Innova and Fortuner account for around 55 percent. NCR accounts for 14 percent of TKM's total sales, TS Jaishankar, deputy managing director-commercial TKM, told the newspaper.

Mr. Jaishankar said that the company is "exploring options to bring in petrol versions of the Innova and the Fortuner" to counteract the ban. While TKM was selling a petrol variant of the Innova when it was launched, this variant was pulled out due to low demand, he said.

The ban on large-capacity diesel vehicles comes at a time where TKM is working on manufacturing its new range of 'GD' diesel engines at a plant in Jigani, Karnataka. The new GD diesel engines comprise of 2.4- and 2.8-liter units, and would power the next iterations of the Innova and Fortuner.

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The Innova has already moved to its second generation in the Indonesian market, and an Indian launch is expected this calendar year. TKM could introduce a 2.0-liter Dual VVT-i petrol engine on the Innova with its model changeover, and a 2.7-liter petrol engine on the Fortuner, paired to manual and automatic transmissions.

[Source - Economic Times]