Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday announced that it had decided not to use Toyota Kirloskar’s factory in India to manufacture Vitara Brezza, also sold as Toyota Urban Cruiser in India.
An agreement was pronounced in March 2019 in which the two companies announced that Maruti Suzuki will supply Baleno to Toyota in India. At the same time, the two companies also agreed that some of the production of mini-SUV Vitara Brezza, which was a hot-selling model at that time, will shift to Toyota Kirloskar’s India plant. Some of the units produced there will be sold under the Toyota brand in India.
Toyota did announce the launch of Urban Cruiser, based on Vitara Brezza, two months ago, but without any plans to manufacture the same at its own plant.
Between the time when the agreement was announced and Urban Cruiser hit the market in October, the Indian auto market has undergone many revolutionary changes that have increased competition in the mini/compact SUV market, hurting the sales of Vitara Brezza.
Maruti small cars underperform despite year-on-year growth
Maruti Suzuki supposes pent-up demand for cars till December
Carmakers in festive season held positive sales growth in November