Family becomes focus for Toyota to take on Uber, Ola

Akito Tachibana is not unduly concerned about car ownership in India being under threat thanks to mobility alternatives such as Uber or Ola.

The Managing Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor concedes that this growing trend cannot be ignored, especially in emerging markets where urbanisation has fuelled demand for mobility. Yet, he maintains that things are different when it comes to delivering “a quality life”.

“An alternative like a taxi cannot move a family since there is a driver already in the vehicle. Sharing is different from owning, which is important for a family in India,” says Tachibana. The challenge for Toyota is, therefore, to offer space and safety as an incentive to ownership.

Where car sharing becomes a cheaper alternative, the manufacturer’s bait to the buyer lies in assuring top-class drive comfort and quality. “We are aiming at quality of life and know that Indians do not want the cheapest option to move from one place to another,” adds Tachibana.

This is where Toyota is going the extra mile here in extending test drives for the entire family. The idea is for them to truly understand how safe its cars are apart from appreciating the benefits of space. “We want to push the idea of a family car for people to realise how important safety is,” says Tachibana.

It was a little over a year ago when Anand Mahindra, Chairman of the Mahindra Group, spoke of the changing mobility dynamics in the auto sector. “Potentially, the bigger threat is from the age of access. We are in the age of the Olas and Ubers and transportation is a commodity that will be given to you,” he had said.

It was Mahindra’s view that young people would then rarely need to own something like a vehicle. And this is where manufacturers would really need to pull out all the stops and offer something really special to motivate them into buying a vehicle.

In the case of Toyota, the move to join hands with Daihatsu in offering smaller cars for emerging markets like India will be a key part of the ‘ownership incentive’ drive. Its first outing with the Etios as a family car was not very encouraging.

Toyota will provide inputs from the Etios journey to take the story forward with Daihatsu. The lessons learnt have been critical in terms of understanding customer expectations in India, car usage patterns as well as road conditions.

“These are issues that we have understood a lot over the years. We need to fulfil customer expectations step-by-step since some of them are way too demanding and difficult,” says Tachibana.

Additionally, there is a need to react faster to market requirements and it is here that “globally modifying to suit local conditions” is the challenge for Toyota. A beginning has been made with the recent drive to re-engineer the Etios where teams from India successfully pulled it off with counterparts from Thailand and Japan also chipping in.

With Suzuki now joining hands with Toyota, it will be interesting to see how this will impact the Daihatsu drive in India. “In the future we need to think of a host of options to meet customer expectations and this means combining all aspects such as safety, space and comfort for the family,” says Tachibana. It is the only way to ward off the growing threat to car ownership from the Ubers and Olas.

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