Toyota Motor Corp. has found that customers don't mind paying more for safety on the world's deadliest roads.
For many years, carmakers have been loath to make air bags standard on models in India, worried that higher costs will hurt sales. Yet eight months after Toyota began installing the devices in all its models sold locally, sales rose 19 percent in the period, compared with a 5 percent jump in industry-wide deliveries, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
"It's been better than we expected," N. Raja, senior vice president and director for sales and marketing at the Japanese carmaker's India unit, said in an interview. "Even in smaller cities and towns, people are coming to realize the need for safety features."
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