Toyota Innova buyers make speedy transition to the hybrid tech-enabled petrol Hycross, which operates in electric mode for about 60% of the time and ensures better fuel efficiency than its diesel sibling, Crysta. While the Crysta’s share of Innova sales has fallen from 80% in FY2023 to 39% in April-June 2025, the Hycross’ share has increased three-fold from 20% to 61 percent.
29 Jul 2025 | 17306 Views | By Ajit Dalvi
Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), which has been having a great run of the Indian passenger vehicle market for the past two years, has maintained its strong growth trajectory in FY2026’s first quarter. Between April and June 2025, the company, which sells 12 models that straddle the MPV, SUV, hatchback, sedan ...
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Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), which has been having a great run of the Indian passenger vehicle market for the past two years, has maintained its strong growth trajectory in FY2026’s first quarter. Between April and June 2025, the company, which sells 12 models that straddle the MPV, SUV, hatchback, sedan and pickup segments, clocked wholesales of 80,432 vehicles, up 18% YoY. Of this, utility vehicles (68,023 units, up 24% YoY) account for an 84% share. The biggest contributor is the popular Innova MPV available as the Innova Crysta and the Innova Hycross.
In the first three months of the current fiscal, the Innova twins have sold 25,383 units, ahead of the Hyryder midsize SUV (19,677 units), Glanza hatchback (11,823 units), Fortuner midsize SUV (8,218 units) or the Urban Cruiser Taisor compact SUV (7,864 units).
What has kept the Innova brand’s demand upbeat is the petrol-only Innova Hycross MPV, which was launched in November 2022 to showcase Toyota’s strengths in hybrid vehicle technology. Powered by a 2.0-litre, 4-cylinder petrol engine combined with a fifth-generation self-charging strong hybrid electric system, the Hycross delivers impressive power output of 184hp and 188 Nm of torque. An alternative 2.0-litre petrol engine paired with a direct-shift CVT offers 173hp. Another calling card is its spacious premium interiors and plenty of features. Essentially, the Hycross offers everything buyers with large families want and there’s a new level of luxury too in this people-mover.
In comparison, the Crysta’s 2.4-litre diesel engine produces 150hp and has an ARAI mileage statistic of 15.10kpl, which varies from 9kpl to 13kpl in the real world depending on weather, driving style and road conditions. The Innova Crysta, which is now a diesel-only model, remains a no-nonsense people-mover. TKM has trimmed the number of variants, cognisant of the consumer preference for the highly efficient Hycross.
ENHANCED FUEL EFFICIENCY WITH HYBRID-ENABLED INNOVA HYCROSS
Hybrid vehicle technology offers the flexibility and ease of use of a traditional IC engine car but with the benefits of electrification. The Hycross’ USP is its hybrid system, which enables the greener of the Innova twins to operate in electric mode for about 60% of the time, ensuring better fuel efficiency in the real world – 13.1kpl in the city and 16.1kpl on the highway – and reduced emissions.
Despite the higher price-tag for the six-variant Hycross range, which starts at Rs 26.31 lakh through to 31.34 lakh including the strong hybrids (Rs 26.31 lakh to Rs 31.34 lakh, ex-showroom), compared to the older sibling Crysta’s Rs 19.09 lakh to Rs 21.30 lakh), the Hycross has now become the firm favourite of the Innova buyer.
The Toyota Innova brand’s wholesales statistics reveal just how demand has shifted from the Crysta to the Hycross over the past 15 months. Launched in November 2022, the Hycross sold 11,351 units in the last five months of FY2023, accounting for 20% of total Innova wholesales. In FY2024, its first full fiscal of sales, the Hycross overtook the Crysta, selling 52,997 units to the Crysta’s 45,183 units – a difference of 7,814 units. In FY2025, the Hycross outsold the Crysta by 18,384 units – the 62,794 Hycross MPVs made for a 59% share of Innova sales versus the Crysta’s 41% (52,997 units) share.
Now, in the current fiscal’s first quarter, the Hycross has further increased its share of Innova sales. At 15,483 units in the April-June 2025 period, the Hycross commands a 61% share versus the Crysta’s 39% share (9,900 units).
On November 22, 2024, exactly two years after the Hycross' market launch, TKM announced that the MPV had surpassed the 100,000 sales milestone in India, driven by sustained demand from across the country including Tier 2/3 markets. At the end of June 2025, cumulative wholesales of the Innova Hycross were 142,625 units. Given the current strong sales momentum for this eco-friendly MPV, expect the Hycross to achieve the 150,000 domestic sales mark by end-July or early August this year.
What will give a boost to the Innova Hycross’ sales this year and beyond is the vehicle recently acing the Bharat NCAP crash test with a top 5-star rating for both adult and child occupant protection. Built on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform, the Innova Hycross is designed to ensure crash safety and structural rigidity and is also equipped with an array of active and passive safety features that make it one of the safest vehicles in the industry.
TOYOTA INDIA STAYS ON TOP OF THE STRONG HYBRID VEHICLE MARKET
Toyota Kirloskar Motor remains the leader with a vice-like grip in the strong hybrid car, SUV and MPV market. As per retail sales data available on the Vahan portal, Toyota India has carried over the same momentum it displayed in FY2025, when it sold 68,231 strong hybrid vehicles and an 82% market share, in Q1 FY2026.
Riding on surging demand for its Innova Hycross MPV, Hyryder midsize SUV, Camry sedan and the luxurious Vellfire MPV, the company has increased its retails by 100% YoY to 21,489 units in April-June 2025 to maintain its over-80% market share, ahead of Maruti Suzuki (18% share) and Honda Cars India (1% share).
TKM has been a forerunner in introducing hybrid vehicles, despite the challenges of high purchase cost, lack of government subsidies (as opposed to electric vehicles) as well as hybrids being perceived not as ‘green’ as their zero-emission counterparts as they still use internal combustion technology. In India, while Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and, more recently, Hyundai and Kia have taken the pure electric route, both Toyota and Maruti Suzuki, which will launch their first EVs in India later this year, have voted for hybrid technology.
TKM, in line with Toyota’s strategy of sustainable mobility by adopting a multiple technology pathway towards providing clean and green solutions including alternate fuels (like ethanol), has also readied a flex-fuel Innova Hycross.
In September 2023, at the G20 Summit in New Delhi, the company showcased the prototype of the world’s First BS 6 (Stage II) Electrified Flex Fuel Vehicle that combines a flex-fuel (biofuel) engine with an electric powertrain to provide dual benefits of larger petrol substitution and higher energy efficiency. This technology promises a disruption-free, smooth and faster energy transition.
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