The Taisor Urban Cruiser, the youngest of the four rebadged models in Toyota Kirloskar Motor’s portfolio and also the most affordable Toyota SUV in India, turned a year old earlier this month. Introduced in the domestic market on April 3, 2024, Toyota’s first compact SUV has registered wholesales of 32,378 units since its launch.
With this level of sales, the Toyota Taisor, which is the rebadged version of the Maruti Fronx, has a 10% share of TKM’s total wholesales, enabling the company to achieve its best-ever fiscal year sales of over 300,000 units in FY2025 since it began operations 25 years ago. This reflects both the importance of TKM’s first compact SUV to its current growth as well as the product’s customer connect because it is part of one of the most hotly contested segments in the PV market.
As per wholesales industry data released by SIAM today, TKM’s PV sales include utility vehicle sales of 258,537 units, up 35% YoY (FY2024: 191,065 UVs) to which the Taisor contributed 12 percent.
In the 11 months that it was on sale in FY2025, the Toyota Taisor averaged monthly sales of 2,943 units.
Sales of the Taisor began in May 2024 and the first two months saw dispatches of 5,365 units. Q2 FY2025(July-September 2024) was saw 8,131 Taisors sent out to Toyota showrooms across India. Q3 (October-December 2024) with 9,340 was a 15% QoQ increase and Q4’s 9,542 units were up 2% on Q3 FY2025 sales.
The Taisor’s performance has to seen in the light of the ultra-competitive segment that it is part of which includes rivals like the Tata Punch – India’s best-selling SUV for FY2025 – and the Nexon, Maruti Brezza and Fronx, Mahindra XUV 3X0, Hyundai Venue and Exter, Kia Sonet and Syros, and the recently launched Skoda Kylaq.
Of the estimated 13,83,334 compact SUVs sold in FY2025, up 10% YoY (FY2024: 12,55,224 units), the Toyota Taisor has taken a 2.34% share in the segment in its first year of sale.
Strategic move to enter compact SUV market pays off
Clocking over 32,000 sales with the Taisor also means that TKM’s strategic move to re-enter India’s booming compact SUV market in less than a year after it discontinued the Toyota Urban Cruiser (the rebadged Maruti Brezza) is paying off. With an aggressive starting pricing of Rs 773,500 (ex-showroom) for the base E MT variant, the Taisor is the most affordable Toyota SUV in India as also the smallest Toyota SUV in India.
The turbocharged Taisor, whose 1-litre petrol engine develops 98hp, offers a 93hp-per-tonne power-to-weight ratio.
The Toyota Taisor is powered by the same 1.2-litre, four-cylinder naturally aspirated petrol and 1.0-litre, three-cylinder turbo-petrol engines. The former develops 90hp and 113 Nm of torque, and can be had with either a 5-speed manual transmission or an AMT. The turbo-petrol engine (98 hp/ 148 Nm) is available with a 5-speed manual and a 6-speed torque converter automatic. There is also a CNG option with claimed fuel efficiency of 28.5 km/kg.
Inside, the Taisor sports dual-tone brown-and-black upholstery, 9-inch touchscreen infotainment with wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, 360-deg camera, a heads-up display, wireless charger, smartwatch connectivity and so on. On the safety front, this Toyota compact SUV gets six airbags, electronic stability program (ESP), hill-hold assist, ABS with EBD and ISOFIX child seat anchorages.
TKM is benefiting from the model rebadging strategy considerably¸ despite each of the four models being in hotly contested segments. Between April 2024 and March 2025, combined sales of the four models (Hyryder, Glanza, Taisor and Rumion) at 163,483 units are up 53% YoY (FY2024: 107,151 units). This makes for a 53% share of the rebadged models, up from the 44% a year ago.
The Taisor is the third highest-selling rebadged model for Toyota Kirloskar Motor. The 4 rebadged models (163,483 units) have a 53% share of TKM’s total dispatches of 309,230 passenger vehicles in FY2025.
In FY2025, the Taisor was TKM’s third highest-selling rebadged model with 32,378 units. The Urban Cruiser Hyryder midsize SUV with 60,388 units, up 23% YoY, is the top-selling rebadged model, followed by the Glanza hatchback (48,839 units, down 7%). The Rumion MPV, launched in August 2023, clocked wholesales of 21,878 units, up 266% on a low year-ago six-month base.