The upcoming Toyota Glanza is rebadged Maruti Suzuki Baleno and will be launched in the Indian market in June
Soon after the official name of the upcoming Toyota premium hatchback was unveiled, a report suggests that both the automotive giants are fighting over the sales figure of the product. Dubbed Toyota Glanza, it is the first rebadged product from the Suzuki-Toyota alliance in India. As per the agreement, Suzuki will supply 25,000 units of the Baleno to Toyota that will be sold as Glanza through the dealership network of TKM in India.
Now Toyota wants to show the sales of the all-new Glanza as their own while Maruti intends to do the same to boost their sales figure. RC Bhargava, the chairman of Maruti Suzuki, has said that “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.
”Toyota Kirloskar India’s deputy managing director, N Raja, said that “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.”
It should be noted that Suzuki will initially manufacture the Glanza at their Gujarat plant. After both the automotive giants commented on the sales approach, SIAM, the automotive body in India said:
“We (SIAM) will make sure double counting does not happen between Maruti Suzuki India and TKM when they sell their cross-badged cars,” Sugato Sen, Deputy Director General, SIAM, told to BusinessLine.
After SIAM commented on the matter, it looks like one of the manufacturers will have to back off and allow the other manufacturer to report the sales of the Glanza. However, it looks like Maruti Suzuki will likely include the sales of the Glanza in their monthly report as Sugato Sen said that “Toyota cannot report the wholesale number of a car that Maruti Suzuki has sold to them and reported as the wholesale number”. Or vice versa, he asserted.
However, Toyota Glanza will be manufactured at SMC Gujrat plant owned by Suzuki, Japan as officially announced by Suzuki Motor Corporation Japan and Toyota Motor Corporation, which is why Toyota wants to report the sales of Glanza as their own.