Mumbai: Two major carmakers, Toyota and Maruti, have revealed broad outline of their developing partnership which is focused on Indian auto market. Toyota Motor Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation agreed to share their product portfolio nearly two months ago.
Toyota, the Japanese carmakers, anticipate collaboration as they would be sharing infrastructure which would include factories and dealer networks in India. Notably, Toyota has a strong presence in India. As Toyota would ride high on Maruti’s network, the latter will be taking leverage of the underutilized manufacturing base of Toyota in India.
Calling the partnership a win-win situation for both the companies, R.C. Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki said, “It is in the interest of both parties. Progress is happening at a reasonable speed. Synergies of this partnership are huge and can save millions of dollars for both the companies as Toyota has underutilized capacity and Maruti needs capacity so this would be beneficial for both.”
He further said that given the demands of emission norms, development of powertrain together will be of great help and addition of markets of Africa will further increase the volume potential.
It should be noted here that both the companies have agreed to expand the scope of the partnership to Africa using India as a manufacturing base.
As per the joint statement, both the companies have already started discussions on new projects in the fields of technological development, vehicle production and market development, which they would be commencing jointly. Suzuki will get the technological support for compact, ultra-high efficiency powertrain from Denso Corporation and Toyota.
Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor, said, “Such progress represents the spirit of “Let’s do it” that I mentioned when announcing the conclusion of our memorandum of understanding on beginning concrete examinations for business partnership.”
Hoping that the new joint projects will contribute to the future success of both the companies not only in India but across the globe, Osamu Suzuki, chairman, Suzuki Motor, said “Now, we will receive support for the development of a compact, ultrahigh-efficiency powertrain that is vital to Suzuki, and we will focus our utmost efforts on development.”
Notably, Maruti and Toyota, collectively, sell about 55 per cent of total passenger vehicles sold in India and also are one of the largest contributors in Government’s GST collection from passenger vehicles market as they contribute almost half of it.
