Suzuki, Toyota may decide on tie-up by end of this fiscal year
Japanese automakers Suzuki Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. are likely to firm up discussions regarding their partnerships by the end of this fiscal, a top executive at Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd said.
The partnerships relate specifically to exchanging, rebadging and selling each other’s models.
“The tail end of fiscal 2019 should see something (concrete) happening”, said Shekar Viswanathan, vice chairman and whole-time director at Toyota Kirloskar Motor, a joint venture of Toyota and the Kirloskar group. A more definite timeline of events will also emerge towards the end of the year, he said in an interview.
On March 29, Toyota and Suzuki agreed to sell each other’s cars in India’s growing automobile market, strengthening a partnership formed on February 6, 2017 to undertake mutual supply of products and components, and jointly develop environmentfriendly vehicles.
Under the agreement, small car specialist Suzuki will supply two of its best-selling models to Toyota; the compact car Baleno and sub-four metre sports utility vehicle (SUV) Vitara Brezza, while Toyota will deliver its popular sedan Corolla to be sold
MUMBAI:
through the dealership network of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Suzuki’s local unit and India’s largest car maker.
Viswanathan describes the model sharing agreement as a “win-win for both sides and the customer” as it would help the maker of the Innova increase offtake via greater utilisation of idle capacity at its two plants in Bengaluru. While the first plant has been running at full capacity for the past few years, the second is languishing at about 30% capacity utilization, according to Viswanathan.
The companies will also benefit from lower costs of development and distribution of a given model owing to the agreement, he said.
“There will be more avenues of sales. Spare parts and service will also be made available through a much larger, more uniform network”, Viswanathan said.