Geneva Preview: Suzuki To Show A-Star

Suzuki is to show its A-Star city car concept at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.

The A-Star, to be built in India in partnership with local manufacturer Maruti, made its debut recently at the New Delhi Auto Expo. It's a small five-door hatchback with a new 1.0-litre petrol engine which meets the Euro 5 emissions standards and gives carbon dioxide emissions of less than 109g/km. A diesel engine is also under consideration.

Suzuki promises that the A-Star 'will prove that sporty and exciting performance can be enjoyed together with outstanding fuel economy', and from the pictures released so far, it certainly looks the part.

The A-Star, which may not continue with the Alto name, is intended for sale in Europe as well as India and production will start in December 2008. Suzuki will invest ¥200bn into its Indian factories by 2009, increase the Maruti Suzuki facility to 960,000 cars a year by 2010 and expand research and development activity in the country.

Suzuki will also display the Splash mini-MPV, the concept Kizashi and Kizashi 2 prototype family cars, and its 2008-specification SX4 WRC rally car, to make its debut later this month at the Monte Carlo Rally.

Maruti To Beef Up R&D

Maruti Suzuki is planning to treble the number of engineers and designers at its R&D (research and development) centre over the next three years.

The company at present has little less than 300 people in its R&D wing. This will go up to 1,000 in three years, according to company sources.

The move on the R&D front comes even as Maruti Suzuki is gearing to roll out a range of new models such as Swift Sedan, A-Star and Splash in the near term. In the medium-term, it is planning to launch the D-segment car, Kizashi.

The company is also stepping up work in alternative fuel segments like LPG, where it has shown success with WagonR Duo and Omni. “Maruti has an aggressive plan for model launches in the next few years. This will require plenty of design and development work for which we have to step up capability,” a top company official said.

S. Nakanishi, Managing Director, had asserted that Maruti was ready to play a major role in Suzuki’s global operations. It is integrating rapidly with Suzuki’s gameplan of launching world strategic models. In the light of the success of world strategic models like Swift and SX4, Maruti will be launching other Suzuki world models like Splash and A-Star in the next 12-18 months.

The A-Star will be manufactured exclusively by Maruti and exported to Europe and the rest of the world. Suzuki Chairman and CEO, O. Suzuki, had always wanted Maruti’s R&D facilities to be on a par with Suzuki Japan.

Maruti To Roll Out Rs 10-lakh Kizashi In 2010

A number of global car makers may be queuing up to compete in the crowded compact car space with a flurry of launches but the original mini major is looking the other way.

Passenger car market leader Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) is planning to move into the luxury family car market with the Kizashi in 2010.

Kizashi, currently in the concept stage, was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2007. It is expected to be the first all-wheel drive sedan in the luxury D segment.

It will carry an advanced four-valve turbo-fired two-litre petrol, Euro V engine, which will also be premiered at the same time. It is also likely to boast the first six-speed transmission from the Suzuki stable. A crossover sports sedan, Kizashi, which depicts an athlete in motion, is likely to sport 21” wheels.

It is expected to roll out of Maruti’s sprawling 500-acre Manesar facility.

The car will be positioned in the Rs-10 lakh-plus price band and will compete with the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Hyundai Sonata, SkodaAuto Octavia and Volkswagen Jetta besides other cars that will debut in the next three years.

According to industry sources, Maruti engineers have already started working on the Kizashi to take it from the concept stage to the production platform and customise the luxury sedan for rugged Indian conditions.