Toyota Ebella Electric SUV Launch Cancelled?
The Japanese automotive giant Toyota has done something which you might not have been expecting. It has been reported that Toyota has pulled the plug on the launch of its first electric car, the Ebella electric SUV, in India. Yes, you heard that right. The Ebella, which was unveiled in India on January 20th, will not be going on sale in the country. Earlier, it was reported that the company was planning to launch the Ebella in the second half of this year. There is no official confirmation of this yet, though.
The video in which the news of Toyota Ebella being cancelled has been shared on Instagram by Vivek ji on their page. It starts off with the creator mentioning that the Ebella electric SUV has to be the biggest mistake from Toyota Innova in India. He continues and mentions that just a few months after its announcement for the Indian market on January 20th, it has been reported that the company has cancelled its launch.
Following this, the presenter mentions that Toyota has asked its dealerships across the country to refund the booking amount which has been taken from customers, along with the interest incurred. For those who may not be aware, Toyota had already commenced the bookings of the Ebella after the unveiling.
In the video, he also mentions that Toyota is also expected to compensate its dealers for the investment done towards the sales, charging, and servicing of the Ebella at their facilities. He adds that they will also be allowed to buy the existing inventory of the Toyota Ebella. However, they will never be allowed to resell them to customers.
A lot of people have been shocked by this bold move done by Toyota. However, a lot more people are curious to know why exactly the Toyota Ebella has been cancelled. Well, from what we can understand, most likely Toyota has decided to pull the plug on the Ebella before the launch because it has gauged that it will not become a volume seller for the brand.
As we all know, the Toyota Ebella is based on the already launched Maruti Suzuki e Vitara, which was already delayed by a couple of years. So, in today's competitive market, the e Vitara (and Ebella, if it were to be launched), which stacks up against super modern rivals including the Mahindra BE 6, Tata Curvv.ev, Hyundai Creta Electric, and the segment champion, the MG Windsor, has already not managed to pull in great sales numbers.
So, by looking at the extremely low sales figures of the e Vitara, Toyota has most likely concluded that the Ebella will not be a worthy product to be in the lineup. The Maruti Suzuki e Vitara deliveries commenced in February, and in the first month, under 230 units were sold across the country. After which, in March, the company dispatched around 1,200 units, and in April, it sold 1,231 units. All of these sales figures most likely have discouraged Toyota before the launch of the Ebella.
Other reasons which are suspected behind the cancellation of the Toyota Ebella are the production constraints and pricing. As mentioned above, the Ebella is the badge-engineered version of the eVitara, which means it was being built by Maruti Suzuki at its plant in Hansalpur, Gujarat. As a result of this joint venture, Toyota might have had to price the Ebella with a premium over the eVitara. But as the sales of the e Vitara are already slow, this higher price would have hurt its sales even more.
Additionally, because of the rising costs of production, it did not seem feasible for the brand to launch the Ebella at a higher price than the e Vitara. Now, at the moment, the Toyota Ebella has not been removed from the official Toyota website. However, it seems that most likely it will not be launched in India. Now, why exactly the Toyota Ebella has been cancelled has not been revealed by the brand, and we believe it will be reported in the coming period.