A match made in heaven?

You will soon be able to buy a Vitara Brezza from Toyota dealerships and a Corolla from Maruti Suzuki outlets. It’s the start of even bigger collaborations from the two giants

IN A LANDMARK MOVE TWO Japanese auto giants, Toyota and Suzuki, have announced an agreement that will see both car makers share certain models in India. That effectively means that one of the world’s largest car makers will partner with India’s largest passenger car maker. This move will allow them to leverage their combined resources to cross sell each others’ products. Right now the collaboration will see Toyota take the ICOTY winning Vitara Brezza and Baleno, rebadge it and sell it through their dealerships. In return Toyota will give the Corolla, rebadge it as a Maruti Suzuki and sell it through Nexa dealerships. The new models are expected to sport some revised styling as well.

Toyota and Suzuki signed their MoUs for business development in February last year which focused on various areas like safety, environmental technology, information technology and the mutual supply of product and components. In November 2017, they took their partnership to the next level by agreeing to jointly produce electric vehicles for the Indian market. Both companies will rely on localisation to keep costs to a minimum, while also supporting the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Under the skin, the Maruti and Toyota models are expected to be identical and will share engines and gearboxes. In time, the models are also expected to adopt some form of hybridisation in line with Suzuki and Toyota’s partnership in this area.

The cross-badging concept hasn’t taken off in our country yet. So it would be interesting to see how the two companies overcome this potential hurdle.