Maruti Suzuki India is finally planning to enter the multi-purpose vehicle segment so far dominated by Mahindra and Mahindra’s Scorpio, Toyota’s Innova and General Motors’ Tavera.
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The company, which will replace its under-achiever Versa next month, is already developing another compact multi purpose vehicle to be showcased at next month’s the Auto Expo 2010 in New Delhi as a concept model, the Hindustan Times said. The company showcased the A-Star [aka Alto, Nissan Pixo]concept at the 2009 expo.
“Maruti’s in house R&D has been making its presence felt in the last few years but this is the first instance when a vehicle is being completely designed from scratch in India,” a source close to the company told the paper. “The A-star had a lot of involvement of Indian engineers but this time it is entirely being designed and manufactured by the team here.”
The new MPV will be a six seater, four-door car likely to find takers in the rural markets, where MPVs are used as a means of transport. Maruti is also developing an indigenous compact car that will be ready by 2012.
Maruti is aggressively expanding its R&D operations in India with a 700 acre centre in Rohtak on the lines of Suzuki’s facility in Japan.
The new centre is being developed largely to facilitate new products entirely designed by engineers in India and parent company Suzuki has already said it wants the Indian centre to be the hub for the Asian region.
