Toyota Glanza premium hatchback based on the Maruti Baleno revealed ahead of June 2019 launch

Toyota Kirloskar’s first badge engineered car for the Indian market – the Glanza premium hatchback – will be launched in India during June. Un-camouflaged Spyshots of the car have surfaced, and from the leaked pictures, it’s clear that the Glanza has minimal changes compared to the Maruti Baleno. Save for the front grille and the Toyota badge replacing the Suzuki badge, the Glanza is an exact replica of the Maruti Baleno. The same holds good for the rear of the car, whose only changes are the Toyota badge and the variant badge. The spyshots indicate that the Glanza would be sold in a V trim, which is likely to compare with the top-end Alpha trim of the Baleno.

Toyota is also expected to offer a G variant of the car, which could compare with the Zeta variant of the Baleno. The  Toyota Glanza is also expected to use the same interiors as the Baleno with probably minor changes such as different  fabric trim and colour finishes.

The Toyota-badged car will continue to have the same strengths as that of the Baleno – light kerb weight, high fuel efficiency and peppy performance. The car will be a petrol-only model, and the latest report suggests that it will be powered by a 1.2 liter-4 cylinder K-Series petrol engine that produces 82 Bhp of power and 113 Nm of peak torque.

The Baleno with the Toyota badging will feature two gearbox options – a 5 speed manual and a CVT automatic. As for features, the Glanza will continue with the same set of features that are offered on the Baleno. This means a touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, twin airbags and ABS across trims,automatic  climate control, rear parking sensors and camera, automatic headlamps, rain sensing wipers and more. The car will be sold as a spacious, well finished hatchback that will sit above the Toyota Liva in terms of price and positioning. Maruti Suzuki will supply the Glanza to Toyota, which will then dispatch to its dealerships.

Notably, there’s some confusion regarding who should take credit for the wholesale numbers that the Toyota Glanza  will clock each month. While Maruti Suzuki is saying that it’ll add the number of Glanza hatchbacks supplied to Toyota to the Maruti-badged Baleno’s numbers, Toyota has stated that it’ll consider the Glanza’s numbers as its own dispatches.

RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki, told the HinduBusinessline:

We will show the cars sold to Toyota as a wholesale number and will report that accordingly in our monthly sales.”  He said that till the time reporting of numbers to SIAM is in wholesale numbers, we will report the number of cars  supplied to TKM as Maruti’s wholesale number.

Taking a different view of this, N Raja, Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, said:

Maruti cannot count the Glanza sales as wholesale numbers because we will do that … it will be billed to dealers  and then to the customers. We will report them as wholesale numbers every month.