Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) have introduced their ‘ECO Car Wash’ service in over 100 dealerships in India. This service helps save 95 per cent of water used during the car washing process. Toyota further added that their goal is to achieve zero water consumption in their operations in the future.
The Japanese giant first introduced the ECO Car Wash four years ago, and now, with the expansion of the service, the company hopes to save up to 253 million litres of groundwater across their dealerships. Toyota Kirloskar have always been striving towards sustainable solutions toward natural resource conservation and with success too. Their raw water consumption for plant operations is a mere 7.6 per cent.
The company also plans on helping local communities around their plants with surplus water, harvested rainwater, and water recycling systems. Toyota India have also been declared as a ‘Model Plant’ leading two of the brands’ environmental challenges 2050, in the Asian Pacific region, the two challenges being zero CO2 emission and minimum water consumption.
The ECO Car Wash products are ready-to-use water-based formulations that clean without damaging paint surfaces. The water consumption is about five per cent as much as traditional car washes and is available at the 100 plus dealerships at the same price as a regular car wash. The time taken is also the same.
Speaking on the new service, N Raja, Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “At TKM, eco-initiatives have always been the top priority. In progression with India’s ‘National Water Mission’, we have been steadily implementing desirable measures towards conservation of water, taking the local operational needs into account. We, at Toyota, have adopted varied methodologies to effectively minimize the water consumption and usage of recycled water in our manufacturing operations, while ensuring lower impact on groundwater levels. In addition to a reduction in water consumption, this ECO method of car washing at our service outlets helps to avoid possible contamination of soil channels that occurs with the use of alkaline solutions in shampoos under conventional car wash. The ECO wash method of cleaning cars consumes just about five per cent of the water as compared to a traditional car wash. An accumulative benefit that we see from this key change will, we hope, make a huge impact on the water conservation endeavours in the region we operate in. Moreover, through this ECO initiative, we widely promote and develop eco-conscious minds amongst our customers, who now opt for such ECO car wash over the traditional washing of vehicles while enjoying our quality service with 100 per cent cleanliness.”
Water shortage is a real problem in India and Toyota initiative sure is a much-needed step in the right direction. We at Car India are always pleased to report such services and commend Toyota for their move towards saving water.
Story: Zal Cursetji
