We have heard of a similar development previously where it was reported Maruti Suzuki is using Ritz platform to develop a small car. Whether the stories are connected, we aren’t sure ourselves.
Maruti Suzuki has put a team of engineers together to make their first fully ‘Made in India’ car. The largest automaker in India, it seems, is fed up with giving royalties to parent company Suzuki and has adopted this new strategy.
Just to give you a glimpse of the amount; the company reportedly paid 5.9% of its total revenues to Suzuki which translates to a whopping Rs 188.70 crore!
As a part of its new strategy, company has also recruited top engineers from US auto companies in Detroit who will work under will work under IV Rao and K Asai [Maruti Suzuki's managing executive officers (engineering)] to deliver the car. But the company hasn’t set a deadline for this project nor are they willing to put the platform details on the table.
Once the car is ready, the company could begin demanding a royalty from Suzuki Motors, therefore reversing the present status quo.
Its been several decades of Maruti Suzuki dominance in Indian market. Till today, they’ve only marketed cars that were developed by parent company Suzuki in various segments for international markets. While that’s been the case with every overseas car maker in India, most of them including the likes of Honda and Toyota are currently working on a small car that is specifically for the Indian market, developed by Indian engineers.
The Maruti Suzuki YP8 belongs to that category of cars. Modeled for the harsh Indian conditions and requirements, the prototype of the desi YP8 is taking shape at the company’s facility in Gurgaon. It will utilize the Suzuki Swift’s platform and the Ritz’s K-Series engine that displaces 1,200 cc.
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We’ve recently been keeping you very up to date with the Maruti Suzuki Ritz (Splash overseas), which is an Indian-made compact car that will cannibalize Swift sales attract many buyers. Alongside the launch of the Maruti Suzuki Ritz, the company has confirmed they will design a new car from scratch, in India, and it will hit the market by around 2011-2012.
It has been said that this car will be completely finished within three years, this means that the design, concept, testing and so forth will all be done in this time frame.
Maruti Suzuki India have actually confirmed that they use their own Indian engineers for that car. The have already been hiring many new designers, as well as electrical and mechanical engineers for the car so that it will be uniquely Indian.
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