Suzuki and Toyota have long been seeking to enter into a collaboration for bringing hybrid vehicle offerings to the Indian market. Building on this, the two Japanese auto makers have now released the details of the partnership, hoping to enable each other to get a larger piece of the budding market in India, one of electric and hybrid vehicles.
The pact mostly revolves around Toyota¡¯s hybrid electric vehicle technology. Toyota has been way ahead in the game, with its first ever hybrid vehicle making its appearance more than 20 years ago in the form of the Prius. Now that the automobile industry is fast making the transition to cleaner vehicles, Toyota only needs to re-package its tech in new products and it should be in a very comfortable position to get the return from it.
The ¡°new products¡± shall come from the house of Suzuki for Toyota¡¯s Indian market. It is a classic tech-for-product trade off. Suzuki saves on the ¡®Research and Development¡¯ cost, while Toyota gets vehicles to re-package and sell under its own brand name.
Toyota Prius PHV (Image: Reuters)
The?deliverables
That is essentially how the collaboration is supposed to pan out. Toyota will be supplying its hybrid systems to Suzuki for its global markets. Within India, it will be providing hybrid engines and locally produced batteries to Suzuki for its hybrid vehicles.
In turn, Suzuki will be offering two of its vehicle models - Ciaz and Ertiga to Toyota in India. That, plus its newly developed engines for compact vehicles. For its African market, Toyota will also get Suzuki's India-produced vehicles, namely the Vitara Brezza, Ciaz, Baleno and Ertiga.
Maruti Suzuki Ciaz (Image: Reuters)
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The firms have plans for their European markets as well. While Toyota will produce electric vehicles for Suzuki based on its RAV4 SUV crossover and Corolla wagon, Suzuki will in turn supply Toyota with gasoline engines for compact vehicle models sold in the region.
While that is all that has been decided upon for now, the intent is to grow the collaboration in other vectors such as production. As the partnership pans out will decide whether the two Japanese counterparts are able to expand this collaboration for new markets and products or will be on their own in the transition to electric and hybrid vehicles.