Toyota to offer ABS as standard on all products

Toyota is the car manufacturer in India that will offer ABS as a standard feature across its range of Indian portfolio starting in 2016-17, as per some ET sources. The Japanese manufacturer until now was the manufacturer along with the German auto giant Volkswagen to offer dual airbags as a standard feature.

Toyota plans to test all its new upcoming cars in India using humanoids also called as THUMS within the company (Total Human model for safety).

The company is also designing cars keeping in mind pedestrian safety. “The new safety regulations are likely to be enforced by 2017 and further norms towards pedestrian safety are also likely to be implemented by the end of the decade. Our current initiative will not only offer a safer car to our buyers, but also give us an edge against the competition,” said N Raja, director and Senior Vice-President for sales and marketing at Toyota Kirloskar.

The Senior VP further stated that in the initial phase most of the Indian car buyers preferred a music system to airbags.

After the crash test performed by EuroNCAP on some of the Indian cars, the need to have safer cars is growing and today customers need airbags in their car. The customers now see safety as one of the key priorities. As there are no new models in the pipeline for this year, Toyota is looking at achieving a similar annual sales of 1.35 lakh units again this fiscal year too.

It is a high number for a manufacturer that is selling all its products with dual airbags.