Toyota Glanza seen on video: Looks much larger than Etios Liva

Toyota has begun dispatching demo cars of the Glanza premium hatchback to dealers across India. A video of the badge engineered car, which is essentially a Maruti Baleno under the skin has just surfaced. The video also shows a Toyota Etios Liva next to the Glanza, and indicates that the latter will be a much larger car than the former. The Toyota Glanza will go on sale in the Indian market from June 2019. The car is expected to be pricier than equivalent variants of the Maruti Baleno. Save for the new front grill and Toyota badging, the Glanza is virtually a Maruti Baleno, and this is true of the interiors and features as well. The Glanza borrows the same interiors and features of the Baleno.

It will be available only with a petrol engine. What remains to be seen is whether Toyota borrows the 1.2 liter K-Series motor or if it opts for the 1.2 liter DualJet petrol engine with a mild hybrid, from Maruti Suzuki. For now, it appears that the Toyota Glanza will use the 1.2 liter K-Series engine with two gearbox options: a 5 speed manual and a CVT automatic. The car will be offered in two trim levels, with both the manual and automatic options. One trim level will be named G and will be the entry-level model while the other – V – will be the top-end trim. Maruti Suzuki will supply the Glanza to Toyota from its Gujarat factory. Toyota may even export the Glanza to specific emerging markets around the world.

The Glanza will not be the only re-badged Toyota car for the Indian market. Toyota’s new partnership with Suzuki means that there are 3 more rebadged/badge-engineered  Maruti cars that will soon wear Toyota badges. The Vitara Brezza compact SUV, the Ciaz C-Segment sedan and the Ertiga MPV are the three other cars that will get Toyota badging in the coming years. In return, Toyota will offer hybrid and electric car technology to Maruti Suzuki, which will deploy them in its future cars. Maruti has already declared that it will no longer produce diesel engined cars from April 2020, and will instead focus on petrol, CNG, LPG, hybrid and electric cars. Toyota is expected to assist Maruti in this dramatic shift.

Toyota has already moved away from diesel engined cars globally. In fact, none of its cars barring some pick up trucks and large SUVs, in Europe have a diesel engine on offer. Toyota has shifted to petrol-hybrids in a big way, and Maruti Suzuki is expected to follow suit. For the Indian market though, Toyota will continue offering diesel engines on its best selling cars such as the Innova MPV and Fortuner SUV. But apart from these cars, diesels are more of less on their way out from Toyota’s Indian line up as well. The Japanese automaker is a world leader in hybrid cars, with the Prius being the most popular Toyota hybrid.