Toyota & Suzuki Finalise Deal to Produce Cars & Push EV Tech

Toyota will manufacture the Vitara Brezza from 2022 in India, while Suzuki will sell Corolla and RAV4 in Europe.

Toyota will supply its hybrid vehicle technology to Suzuki, while selling some Suzuki vehicles as Toyota branded ones. 

(Photo: The Quint)

Want to drive a Toyota Ertiga or a Toyota Ciaz or perhaps a Suzuki Corolla? No, that’s not a typo, but a part of the deal between Suzuki and Toyota on joint production and sale of cars. It’s a wide-ranging pact that the two Japanese companies have signed that include joint design and production of a vehicle for India, supply of hybrid and electric vehicle systems and also badge-engineering and reselling vehicles in other markets.

Let’s just break this deal down for you before getting into the specifics of what it entails. Here’s what Toyota and Suzuki have agreed to in a nutshell.

The Toyota-Suzuki Deal

• Toyota will supply its hybrid system to Suzuki for global markets
• Toyota will source hybrid-electric system locally in India
• Suzuki will sell Toyota’s RAV4 and Corolla wagon in Europe

• Suzuki to supply Ciaz and Ertiga to Toyota to re-badge and sell in India
• Toyota to start using newly developed engines by Suzuki and make them in Poland
• Toyota to sell Suzuki’s Baleno, Vitara Brezza, Ciaz and Ertiga as Toyota vehicles in Africa
• Suzuki to manufacture a C-segment Toyota MPV and sell in India
• From 2022, Suzuki Vitara Brezza to be made by Toyota in Bengaluru

Although this partnership involves both companies making and selling some of each others models, the brands will compete with each other in the market.

Toyota will manufacture the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza at its plant in Bengaluru from 2022.Photo: The Quint

The deal actually bolsters both companies. Suzuki does not have a sedan larger than the Ciaz or an MPV larger than the Ertiga in the Indian market. By jointly developing a Toyota C-segment MPV, it will get a vehicle that can compete in Toyota Innova territory. And in Europe, Suzuki gets a larger car like the Corolla wagon as well as a small SUV like the RAV4.

Toyota gets to compete in the compact SUV market in India with the Vitara Brezza, that is the largest-selling compact SUV at the moment. Toyota will also get a smaller sedan and MPV to sell in the African market with the Ciaz and Ertiga. Besides it also gets a hatchback like the Baleno and the Vitara Brezza compact SUV as well.

Both companies have a tie-up for electric vehicles. Toyota already has the technology which it will supply to Suzuki for hybrid vehicles. Both the companies will jointly develop electric vehicles too.