Maruti Suzuki’s mid-size SUV will compete against Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos and it will likely go on sale in the early parts of 2022
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) inaugurated the Nexa premium dealerships in 2015 and currently Ignis, Baleno, Ciaz, XL6 and S-Cross are sold there. It is celebrating five years of existence and more than 1.1 million units have been retailed, making it the third largest automobile sales network in the country with 370 showrooms across more than 200 cities.
It is no secret that the Nexa portfolio will be strengthened in the coming years. The S-Cross is the flagship model sold through the Nexa outlets and Suzuki’s partnership with Toyota will help in spawning new products. Toyota and Suzuki penned a Memorandum of Understanding back in February 2017 and their relationship has indeed flourished.
The mutually beneficial alliance capitalizes each brand’s strengths in various departments and use them to their advantage to reduce production costs, widen the footprint and ultimately increase sales volumes not just in India but international markets as well. Through badge engineering processes and co-development of new products, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota are making their synergy work for the betterment of the future.
Maruti Suzuki appears to be working on an all-new mid-size SUV in collaboration with Toyota. It is expected to be based on the same architecture as the Toyota Raize. Late last year, Toyota unveiled the Raize sub-four-metre SUV and it sits on the low-cost derivative of the modular Toyota New Global Architecture. It is the rebadged version of the Daihatsu Rocky.
Ideally, the Raize would be a perfect fit for the Indian market’s compact SUV class. However, its flexible platform will reportedly be used for a mid-size Maruti Suzuki SUV. It will compete against Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Tata Harrier, Nissan Kicks and the likes. It could follow the launch of the Jimny five-door SUV in the early parts of 2022.
The Maruti Suzuki Jimny will more likely go on sale next year in India as a spiritual successor to the Gypsy. Both the SUVs will consolidate the Indo-Japanese manufacturer’s Nexa premium dealerships that will see a substantial expansion. A C-segment seven-seater Maruti Suzuki MPV based on Toyota’s C-MPV is also said to be in the works and it could be positioned above the Ertiga and below the Toyota Innova Crysta.