Maruti & Toyota to launch Hyundai Creta rivaling compact SUV next year

Japanese automobile giants – Suzuki and Toyota have joined at a global level to launch new cars together. In India, we already have cars like Toyota Glanza and Toyota Urban Cruiser. A few upcoming rebadged products will be launched by the manufacturers in the coming months including the Toyota Belta, which will be Toyota’s variant of the Ciaz. Maruti Suzuki and Toyota are currently working to launch a new mid-size SUV to take on the likes of Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos.

According to ETAuto, top sources have informed that Toyota and Maruti Suzuki have been working together for more than a year to develop the new product. Designers, the product development team and the engineering teams from both the manufacturers are working together on the upcoming product.

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The Indian government has announced a Rs 26,000 production-linked incentive scheme on electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. According to the sources, both the manufacturers are likely to become much more aggressive to gain access to the fund.

“While the original plan of the companies was to look at strong hybrids and other electrified versions (running on both battery and petrol), now the thoughts are being focused around pure electrics and even fuel cells. These are preliminary discussions, and nothing has been finalised as yet. However, it can be said with certainty that it’s a joint future,” one of the sources said to ETAuto.

Made at Toyota plant

The all-new SUV is currently jointly developed by both the manufacturers and the sources claim that it is getting developed from the ground up. The vehicle will be manufactured at Toyota’s Karnataka plant and will be sold through both Maruti Suzuki dealerships and Toyota dealerships in India.

Since the manufacturers are developing on blank paper, we are likely to see very different styling from both the iterations of both the manufacturers. Until now, Toyota did not change much in the Baleno to sell it under the Glanza name while there are a few more changes in the Urban Cruiser that adds a more “Toyota” look to the vehicle but it largely remains unchanged.

With both the manufacturers involved in the development of the all-new car, we will get to see very different and signature design elements in both vehicles. The cost of the development is around Rs 1,000 crore. It is the first project that both the manufacturers are working on.

The mid-size SUV segment has already become quite crowded, especially after the launch of cars like Kushaq, Taigun and more such vehicles. However, the segment is still ruled by the Hyundai Creta and the Kia Seltos.

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