By Admin
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Suzuki and Toyota, in India, have been facing almost same problem but in different segment. Maruti Suzuki is not successful in selling premium cars beyond CIAZ segment and off lately is facing stiff competition right from selling Alto to Brezza. For Toyota Kirloskar it has been a very comfortable ride for them in the SUV segment but when it comes to hatchback segment, they have only one product to boast of – Etios Livia.
On 6th of February, 2017 both parties signed an MoU for sharing of ‘Toyota Hybrid System’ to Suzuki, widely spread hybrid electric vehicle technology in India, OEM supply of two new electrified vehicles built on Toyota platforms (RAV4, Corolla Wagon) to Suzuki in Europe, OEM supply of two compact vehicles built on Suzuki platforms (Ciaz and Ertiga) to Toyota in India.
Apart from this, Toyota to adopt newly developed Suzuki engines for compact vehicles, OEM supply of Suzuki’s India-produced vehicles (Baleno, Vitara Brezza, Ciaz, Ertiga) to Toyota – targeting the African market, drawing upon Suzuki’s expertise in developing vehicles in India, joint development of a Toyota C-segment MPV and OEM supply to Suzuki and Production of the Suzuki-developed compact SUV Vitara Brezza at Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. (TKM) from 2022.
The process of mutual collaboration has already started with Suzuki providing baleno model to Toyota, rebadged and renamed as ‘Toyota Glanza’ and will be officially launched in India in the month of June, 2019. We expect Glanza will be available in two variants – G & V, one with a Petrol-manual and the other with petrol-automatic combination. The heart of Glanza will be a 1.2 litre K series engine connected to a CVT automatic and a 5-speed manual gear box.
Both, Toyota and Suzuki are following the same approach which Renault and Nissan have done in India, sharing each other’s products with different names. Time will tell how successful this collaboration will be but one thing is for sure that in future, car makers in India, will be quite aggressive in approach which will definitely put market on fire.
