Toyota’s joint venture with Suzuki has grabbed plenty of headlines since it was announced last March. A re-badged Baleno, christened as ‘Glanza’, which was speculated to be in Toyota’s pipeline, was confirmed after the company teased it for the first time last week.
Now, further revealing what it holds on the cosmetic front, the Glanza’s mid-level V variant was spied at one of the company’s dealerships, months ahead of its official debut in June. Except for the new cascading grille and a slightly tweaked fog-lamps which are now placed further apart, a fleeting glimpse of the Glanza’s front fascia won’t reveal any major difference. Toyota has left the rear untouched, faithfully inheriting elements such as the chrome strip stretching between the tail-lamps and the fairly huge bumper from the Baleno.
In March last year, the two Japanese companies concluded a basic agreement for supplying hybrid and other vehicles to each other in the Indian market. As per the agreement, Suzuki will supply premium hatchback Baleno and compact SUV Vitara Brezza to Toyota.
"In the second half of next fiscal, Toyota will launch its version of Baleno. There will be external tweaks for a different look but it will be more like the existing one," a source said. When contacted Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), the Indian arm of Toyota, it did not comment on the timeline for the launch.
"Under the Toyota-Suzuki tie-up, each company will sell mutually supplied vehicles under their own respective brands and nameplates. Beyond that, at this point in time, we are not in a position to discuss further details such as vehicle specifications of our future product plans" Toyota Kirloskar Motor Vice President Atsushi Oki told PTI.
He said Toyota will further boost its outlook on component localisation in support to Make in India initiative to achieve cost-effectiveness.
On how Toyota would position its version of Baleno in the market in terms of pricing, Oki said, "We understand the price sensitivity of Indian market. We will continue to keep up the price momentum in these directions. At this point in time, details on pricing are under discussion."
In February 2017, Toyota and Suzuki had concluded a memorandum towards business partnership and since then, they have been exploring concrete projects for collaboration in areas including
environmental technology, safety technology, information technology, and the mutual supply of products and components.
Subsequently, in November 2017 the companies announced an MoU to consider a cooperative structure for introducing battery electric vehicles in India around 2020.
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